Cadavre Exquis (Exquisite Cadaver) 1932

Editor: So, this is Valentine Hugo's "Cadavre Exquis," or "Exquisite Corpse," from 1932. It's an ink and colored pencil drawing on paper, and the longer I look, the more dreamlike it feels. Almost like peering into someone's subconscious. What symbols strike you in this work? Curator: The immediate symbol that grips me is the train receding into the distance. The train in Surrealist iconography often symbolizes the movement of the unconscious, the journey inward. It suggests both freedom and an irrevocable departure from reality. But then, do the glasses attached to the table legs by liquid pillars, suggest stability through something that seems like it should be inherently unstable? Editor: That's interesting! I hadn't considered the glasses as points of stability, but more as bizarre structural supports. The train could suggest societal progress versus the static and strange table set below. Is there a dialogue between both ideas here? Curator: Indeed. There is a distinct visual and perhaps psychological layering occurring. What is progressing further away, up and to the horizon of awareness, contrasts sharply with that which props the concrete, grounded 'reality.' Also, the crowd. What do we remember of crowds, how do they tend to form and inform individual perspectives in times of upheaval and anxiety? Editor: Now that you mention the crowd, its strange unity and presence feels foreboding given what would happen a few years later in Europe with the war. Maybe, there is cultural memory encoded in there? Thank you so much for that insight. Curator: The pleasure is mine. Always consider the long lives of our symbols! The "Cadavre Exquis" technique allows a cultural stream of unconscious thought and feeling to surface in uncanny and important ways.