Chest of Drawers: Venus and Kali

One of the basic premises of interpreting the 'Surreal Art work' is, it is beyond and above any understandings and explanations. Surrealist artists often expressed their discontent of their civilisation times taking the aide of Freudian methods of exploring the 'Unconscious'. Putting a chest of Drawers on to an ancient mother goddess figure  ( Venus of Milo ) could be best considered as an anti-war stance taken by Salvador Dali. Why this object was chosen by Dalí is an interesting question to consider. And my intrigued friend who recently visited this statue displayed in Ekebergen Park in Oslo, Norway pointed out, this can be conceived as repressed sexual activity. This article is to understand,  how this activity of converting a conventional symbol of beauty and love in to a 'chest of drawers', can be viewed from the psycho-analytic perspective.

The structure of psycho-analysis often helps us to connect with others in a deeper level and explore the fears and desires from our unconscious emotional life. Desire and Fear forms the two major driving forces that govern the 'Unconscious'. Our earliest object of desire is the mother. She is not only a primary care giver, the pleasure principle of human existence rests on her. And broadly speaking our earliest object of fear is the 'father', who has the potential to separate and create a necessary distance away from the all the pleasure principles.

Often this happens in the context that this step of generating the anxiety is much needed and welcome in order to make the dependent and helpless child who is glued on to the pleasure principles in to an individual. [Mary Klages, Literary theory]. The desire to seek, attach and remain attached to the Mother [ Pleasure Principle] can be attributed to the Unconscious of the 'id' and the 'ego'. The fear generated by the 'Super-ego' structure [ Father] helps to individuate the child from the mother [ pleasures] and prepare the child to stay in reality and take control of the reality [ Reality Principle]. The 'desire' towards mom then becomes a nurturing force and the 'fear' from the father a force that shapes any young mind to take control of the reality.


The original statue of 'Venus of Milo' is one such replica of a young Mother or a goddess, whose form and grace captured the imagination of a Greek sculptor around 100 BCE. Dali's angst against the war torn Europe has to start from somewhere. And it is not a chance finding to see this starts from one of the mothers of the cradle of western civilisations. The patriarch Fathers of the western world of his times, have effectively separated the vulnerable infant minds away from the beauty and love of the young goddess. Transforming the pleasure principle that happily rested on the 'beauty and love' to a grotesquely transformed  libidinal activity and attachment towards 'wealth' and a  ' Place to store the wages of War'.

The restlessness of the fathers of the war generation, separate the children away from the nurturing forces of ' beauty and love' and readily train and condition to get aroused and motivated by the money or wealth. The young minds who move away from the mom and sexual partners, engage in hard training routines, discharge their frustrations in the act of war. By moving away from the erogenous nurturing regions of a female body , young mind then converts the beauty and divinity of a female space in to a space where something could be stored in to. Like money or the wealth they generate through the warring activity, say for example.

Psychoanalysis theories often  talk about moving away from mom , remaining attached to the pleasures, ability to with stand the separation anxiety, moving away from the secure base, exploring the world around, discharge the frustrations in aggression , taking control of the world and in this process and indirectly hints upon the bringing home the kills and exploits from the world around us. During this process something vital is lost forever especially exemplified by the world wars. That’s one way Dali's angst against the war generating fathers could be viewed in a psycho-analytical framework. Converting ‘beauty and truth’ of Mother Earth in to a useful or useless space to fill with money/ wages of violence.

If you consider the culture of Mother Goddesses all started more or less in the same time in the human histories; they have taken two different trajectories in the east and west. Excesses of linear thinking , rationality and fervent progress have compromised on appreciating the truth and beauty of viewing the world as a secure base of a benevolent father and beautiful mother. It is a romantic version to take. ‘Truth is beauty and beauty is truth. That’s all one needs to know ‘. [ Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn]

There is no Surrealism in Indian Artworks, as Psycho-analysis movements only elicited a luke warm response on the whole. Is it possible to put a chest of drawers in one of the ancient mothers of Indian milieu,' Kaali'?. What meanings it could generate to an Indian Psyche?

Unlike the beauty and love represented by the Greek goddess Venus, the ferocious form of female principle goes on to represent the 'Time'. This is taking the view that 'Kalabhairava' as the male principle representing the time and ' Kaali' the female equivalent of 'Time'. The psychoanalytical theories comes to a staggering halt in trying to understand the Mother - child dyad and the psychosexual developmental aspects in a linear time structure. This stems from the fact, possibly the cyclical view of time determines everything. The western intellectual traditions rested on the linearity time principles and the Indian intellectual traditions on the cyclical essence of the time. This briefly highlights how and why the sociology and psychology has not made any seismic difference in the Indian milieu.

The Surreal art of Dali represents the essence, 'Restlessness of the fathers converts beauty and love in to a space for Nothingness'. This could be understood using the theory of Psychoanalysis to some extent. The cosmic dance of Shiva comes close to understand the essence of chest of Drawers on an ancient Indian goddess. In the Indian milieu, Psychoanalysis can yield spurious results in trying to understand the art works where traditional symbolisms are used to understand and capture the essence. Cyclical representation of time, negates the role for any theories based on linear narrative structures. Satyam, Shivam and Sundaram can rest in peace. The truth, nothingness and the beauty co-exist and held together by a ferocious feminine principle of time.