Recall the intense grief suffered by Demeter at the loss of her daughter,
Persephone, to the Underworld. Woman's detachment from her creativity is
similar to the mother-daughter separation depicted in this Greek myth. Woman
has been detached from her Memory, her mother,
23 the source of all inspiration
and creation. At some point during childhood, mothers and daughters intuitively
break the bond between each other, which is necessary so that the daughter
becomes independent and able to live "successfully" in this society.24 However,
this break of ties with the mother leaves the daughter with a feeling of
alienation which may leave her searching for the lost mother for the rest of
her life.25
Being conditioned to deny the true selves and being encouraged and rewarded
to play roles that are expected in this society, though not necessarily true to
the self, self-acceptance and self-realization are often difficult processes of
transformation for women.26 (Adrienne Rich calls these difficulties "birth pains"
accompanying the births of our inner selves.27 ) Women are understandably
distrustful and unsure of the strength they sense within themselves.
It is also understandable that women have conflicting feelings, even fear,
about their creativity.28 Women have been conditioned to think of themselves
as Muse or provider for men. To consciously transition from that role to one of
inspiration or provider for the self, creates conflict within the self as one who
needs to please both herself while accomodating the world around her. Conflict
within the self often results in identity crisis or psychosis, a split within the
human psyche.29
For the women Surrealists especially, the conflict of this transformation
involved temporary psychosis, "madness" or acute depression. Gloria Orenstein
has renamed these "breakdowns' as "breakthroughs" to a truer sense of self-
acceptance.30 Meret Oppenheim, probably the most independent woman artist
of the Surrealist era, who was for a long time friend/lover/model of Man Ray,
survived an 18 year psychological and artistic crisis,31 beginning when she
was 24, soon after the fame of one of her pieces, Object, known as Dejeuner
en fourure in 1936 (fig. B) which she saw as one of her more insignificant
pieces.32 Oppenheim was so thouroughly associated with this piece by the outside
which was taken so seriously and promoted heavily by the male Surrealists
as a true Surrealist work of art, that Oppenheim felt limited in becoming known
as the artist she truly was.
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