A recent trip to The Chicago Art Institute led me to this little piece of surrealist art by Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen. The piece made in 1938 is entitled L'Autophage (Fulgarites). Fumage is a Surrealist experimental technique that Paalen contributed to the movement. To make a a fumage, the artist would pass the a substrate over the flame of a lit candle and allow the smoke to collect. This would result in an unplanned composition.
I was inspired to do a couple experiments. I did my first fumage as a collaborative experiment with dialogue. Each person wrote a question on a piece of a paper and passed it over a flame to the other person. The answer is written and passed back over the same flame. 2 pieces go in tandem. By incorporating a silent dialogue I took the solitdue out of the creation process. However, by using only writing and no verbal dialogue I created a little mystery in the passing of the paper over the flame, and hence the subconscious patterns. Some of the patterns are more directional and others apprehensive....
I hope you enjoy ! More soon... Try it. Just don't liner to long over the flame! We caused a few mini fires.
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