Dali, 1936
Surrealists seemed to dig this red crustacean. It’s one of those natural objects that look like a dream. Especially creepy when they are alive and brown with their antennae poking about your living room as you urge them to race.
Yes, tonight is the night of the great lobster race. We’re upping the ante tonight, as my boyfriend and I will be having company for dinner. So instead of just two lobsters, we’ll have six lobsters. You line them up and then urge them to move forward. It sounds slightly more exciting than it is, given that these are not fast land animals. In an ideal world, the winner of the race would avoid the pot and become a cherished household pet. However, life is short and brutish. All the lobsters are going in the pot tonight. [Insert evil grin]
As much as I enjoy these events, live lobsters creep me out Annie Hall style. So what I’m wondering is–did Dali use a real deccissitated lobster for his ridiculous, iconic telephone? I’m going to assume it is plastic for my own sanity.
Plastic? That was 1936. They didn’t have plastic. The lobster is plaster.
I read these were perfectly functional phones, too.
Actually Bakelite was invented around 1909 and a bunch of other plastics followed. That doesn’t mean you aren’t right about the phone being plaster; it seems more likely.
I always assumed they were useless! Much cooler to have them work.
I was being hyperbolic. Of course plastic existed in 1936. It wasn’t in wide use, however, and certainly wasn’t available for studio use by wacky sculptors.
I got the materials from the Website of the National Gallery of Australia, which apparently has one.
I could use a crazy, rich patron like Edward James myself.
I have a craving for lobster now, thank you.
May I reccomend the fishmonger on Grand and Eldrige? $5/lb!
When my kids were younger, when we went into the supermarket they’d always run up to the lobster tank to say hi. I’m not sure I could bring a lobster home.
“The lobster phone was also know as the ‘Aphrodisiac Phone’ because you talked into the lobsters genitalia…”
I don’t get it, but, please, don’t anybody try to explain that one to me.
You know, it’s a little known fact about lobster genitals….
Actually, I got nothing.
I hope you enjoyed your dinner last night.
I’ll share with you another use for lobster found by Salvador Dali. You’ll find it strategically placed on a naked lady in this photograph taken by George Platt Lynes during the filming of “Dream of Venus” in 1939. (Scroll down to the end of the blog to find the photo.)
http://www.youcanhireanartist.com/elegantly-dressed-wednesday-salvador-dali/
– Kathleen Benton
Oh Kathleen, I enjoyed the post but not so much the lobster photo…She was NOT elegantly dressed.
Lobster racing…? Really?
You crazy [sadistic] Americans.
Oh Mr. Seb, you have no idea. http://www.twitpic.com/i6byv
Frackin’ BARBARIANS!