Lady Gaga – a Modern Day Surrealist?
Okay, here is my confession, I am a bit of a closet eccentric, have you seen my wardrobe though? My wardrobe is bursting from the seams and has exploded many times scattering clothes everywhere. In the same way my eccentric nature has occasionally done the same. But according to Sigmund Freud we are all closet eccentrics and he expressed that this was something to be explored and not something to be kept behind closed doors. Some people suppress their inner wildest thoughts and some just put them out there.
One artist to have followed the "put it out there" route was Salvador Dali, one of my favourite artists. Famous for his surreal paintings, especially the "melting clocks" work called "The Persistence of Memory" Dali expressed his darkest most inner fears and fantasies through his work. Many though have not seen just how dark and bizarre some of his work was unless they have been to his exhibitions. A large amount of his work is shocking to us due to the fact that it hits us right in a place that we are trying to control.
Suppressing our darker thoughts is obviously not a bad thing, but what about just a random nature, and our thoughts that can be used to express our personality? Is it possible to express our inner feelings and thoughts without them becoming dark. Yes, because that is exactly what the artist Gaudi done. As a very religious man he expressed his inner eccentricity in a way that was "acceptable" showing that you do not always have to linger on your darker thoughts.
So I will get to the point, Lady Gaga is someone who even by her father was called "Loopy" from a young age because he is not quite sure how she has turned out the way she has. Her creative team "Haus of Gaga" produces amazing surreal fashion pieces as well as stage designs and props. It is not clear how much of this teams work is actually directed by Lady Gaga, but what is clear is that she is happy to accept the bizarre outfits and props they provide. The first time I realised that Haus of Gaga's inspiration comes from artists such as Dali was when Lady Gaga performed on a 20 foot high piano with a highly Dali influenced type shape on the Royal Variety show.
Also her outfits are not just for special occasions, they are something she wears WHENEVER in the public eye which is quite brave of her and shows she is happy to express her inner eccentric nature. Many may not know that Lady Gaga writes every single lyric and note of her music, therefore I would expect that she would want to be in control in all other areas of her work. What is interesting though is that her actual lyrics are not actually that surreal considering the type of person she appears to be. What do you think?
