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There is nothing to suggest that Beethoven would have had anything to do with the Dada movement had he been alive during the first world war but, given the fact that no-one is 100% certain where the name ‘Dada’ came from, why not the beginning of the fifth, with old man death knocking at the door? After all, the movement is dead.
The reason I am referring to the Dada movement is because that’s what we covered tonight in art class. The reason I referred to Beethoven is just a bit of Gaz Dadaism.
In preparation for tonight’s class, I watched a short video of a performance at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. It was completely wacky and something I would have enjoyed immensely had I been there. Dada was all about anti-art as a form of expression. It was rebelling against the horrors of the war as well as the conventions of the art world.
As homework, we were to create some Dada works ourselves. This was something else I thoroughly enjoyed. So much so that I created two before the class even started.
A Dada poem, made by cutting out 20 individual words from a Swedish newspaper and taking them at random, one by one, and sticking them to a piece of paper to form a nonsensical poem.
Here it is:
Dada was the art of chance. This sort of random creation was a reflection of the Dadaists belief in the futility of war and the corruption of art.
My second piece was created by Mirinda picking three random pages from a magazine, without looking at them. I asked her for three page numbers from which I took an image. These three images were then made into a single, collage like picture.
For the title of this piece, I asked Mirinda for her favourite poem so I could use the first line of it. She said The Man from Ironbark. But, in a random bit of happenchance, I thought she said The Man From Snowy River. For this reason, this piece is called There was movement at the station.
It would be fair to say that I consider Dada as a highlight of my art classes. This is probably because it is an actual art movement that I can take part in. Okay, it only lasted for around five months and was a long time before I was born but, even so, I feel great joy in being able to participate.
I have two more pieces to create and will complete them tomorrow. Such fun!
Apart from art, my day was full of mowing, cooking and shopping. One result of shopping was the discovery that the footpath between the woods and the ICA has finally been finished.
The new, smooth surface is so much easier to navigate when I don’t have to engage four wheel drive mode on my shopping trolley .
