Life in the surreal world of Dali – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Salvador Dali: Gardens of the Mind takes a walk on the weird side at Selby Gardens

"Salvador Dali: Gardens of the Mind": Runs through June 28 at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, 811 S. Palm Ave., Sarasota. Admission $25 or free for members. (941) 366-5731; selby.org

"Salvador Dali: Gardens of the Mind" has blossomed at Selby Botanical Gardens. Curated by Dr. Carol Ockman, this garden of unearthly delights evokes Dalis obsessions with a series of witty botanical vignettes. How does his mental garden grow?

From the earth, naturally. The human mind has its roots there.

That flies in the face of Dalis otherworldly reputation. Surrealists are famed for fleeing reality. The mind is its own place, and their minds are someplace else. So the story goes, anyway. But this witty exhibit tells a different story. The seed of that narrative?

Surrealist artists explore the worlds of the mind. But theyre not worlds of pure imagination, even in Dalis mind. His fantastic imagery was grounded in real-world experience the evidence of the five senses. Because thats all his imagination had to play with.

This exhibit grounds Dalis surreal world in the real world. Its not a lecture on phenomenology. But it connects the dots between the artists dreamscapes and the Catalan landscapes that flooded his eyes. Philosophy aside, its also a lot of fun.

The topsy-turvy trip begins before you enter. You pass between rows of upside-down trees, (actually) support columns in disguise.

From here, the path takes you deeper into Dalis fevered mind. Large-scale recreations evoke basic elements of his symbolic vocabulary.

Eggs. Eyeballs. Butterflies. Spirals. Crutches. Boats. Pianos. Mae West. Dalis mustache.

Eggs. An ancient symbol of life. Here, a tree grows from one cracked egg; bromeliads sprout from another.

Eyeballs. The eye of the beholder; the petrifying gaze. Across the surreal journey, you can cast your eyes on unblinking orbs glued to orchids, slapped on trees, and woven from bromeliads.

Butterflies. Transformation and resurrection. Selby Gardens flutters with butterfly art pieces (glued to one tree in place of leaves; a banyan turned into an elephant with butterfly wings for ears) and the real thing (a butterfly house fluttering with Florida natives).

The Fibonacci Spiral. Gods math; the underlying order of the world. In nature, this logarithmic pattern pops up in pinecones and pineapples. In this exhibit, spirals of copper, bromeliads and a path beneath your feet.

Crutches. In Dalis mind, if humans could use crutches, why couldnt nature? Across the gardens, crutches support the limbs of banyan trees and displays of orchids and bromeliads.

Boats. In reality, designed to float. In Dalis art, a metaphor for going nowhere. This exhibit echoes his absurdity with boats turned into planters and hanging from trees and rafters.

Pianos. The dead weight of decadent culture. Here, pianos hang from trees, float in ponds, and burst with greenery.

Mae West. Raw sex appeal. At Selby Gardens, you can sit on a bouncy red sofa based on Mae Wests lips. Or gaze at a trompe loeil recreation of her face.

Dalis mustache. Branding, what else? A portrait of the artist as a mad visionary. This exhibit twirls the artists metaphorical mustache with a 10-foot incarnation of pilea libanensis, an eight-foot version planted with silver tillandsia plants, and an 18-foot stache created from zip-tied birch twigs.

In his paintings, prints and drawings, the artist expressed his symbolic vocabulary with a realistic style. This exhibit paints a mental picture with the real thing. Angel Lara, director of greenhouse collections, and Mike McLaughlin, director of hoticulture, recreate his mental garden with orchids, bromeliads and vines. The effect is to bring Dalis otherworldly dreams into our world. As Ockman points out, they were never that far from the real world to begin with. Dalis fantastic visions reflected a fantastic reality.

"Dalis otherworldly vistas of flat sand and sea, punctuated by fantastical rock formations, are inspired by the rugged coastal landscape of his beloved Catalonia," Ockman said.

The Museum of Botany & the Arts offers evidence of this real-world connection. You can see it in the "Flordali" series of Dalis lithographs, on loan from The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Clyde Butchers massive photos of Dalis home turf manifest it as well.

At first glance, Dalis prints are garden-variety botanical illustrations. You can clearly identify the flora. (Of course, real plants dont sprout bacon and eggs.) Butchers massive photos of Catalonia show that Dalis imagination didnt stray as far from reality as we tend to think. The artist once described this region as a "grandiose geological delirium." He wasnt wrong.

These prints and photos reveal the artists deep connection to nature. Dalis art didnt spring from his mad mind ab nihilo. His visions were surreal. But they were born in a vision of reality.

What does it all mean?

In this exhibit, whatever you want.

In Dalis actual work?

He tried not to tip his hand.

Dalis symbols are a mishmash of Catholic iconography, neo-Platonic mysticism, Quantum physics, re-fried Freud, and his idiosyncratic associations. On the surface level, there are obvious meanings (egg=life), but he often flipped the script. An egg might sprout the Grim Reaper.

Like a DJ mixing samples, Dali mashed his symbols together in weird juxtapositions. Hed take mundane objects out of context and put them where they shouldnt be. Boats belong in the water, not in trees. Pianos arent supposed to float.

The effect can be wonder or terror. But this family friendly exhibit avoids the dark side. No sexually aroused skeletons. No rotting, dead horses. Its all fun, whimsical and G-rated.

What did it mean? Wrong question. Dalis mental landscape isnt a rebus to decode. The enigma is the point. Let the mystery be. And just enjoy it.

Originally posted here:

Life in the surreal world of Dali - Sarasota Herald-Tribune