On Desire, Defiance, and the Gaze

Unveiled Desires II at Richard Saltoun gallery

Unveiled Desires II: Erotic Surrealism – Identity, Desire and the Body at Richard Saltoun gallery in Mayfair earlier this year was firmly one of my faves in London, possibly ever..?!

I was not entirely sure what to expect. The gallery was new. The exhibition’s title alone — "erotic surrealism" — carries enough delight in me to propel me inside.. For want of more backstory, my literature thesis was on magical realism by Borges and surrealism: their sharing a rejection of naive realism, mutual divergence sharply on the unconscious, politics, the everyday, and their privileging of time (Borges) vs. space/image (Surrealism).

Curator Maudji Mendel gave us something genuinely thought-provoking here, focussing on women and queers who have long been sidelined from the surrealist i.d. — people who were making radical, boundary-pushing work while their male counterparts (Dali etc) were being written into the history books, an omission that felt absurd walking through. I kept having this feeling of why have I never heard of these people before? Like genuinely annoyed on their behalf

"Eroticism has always been a tool for resistance against waves of conservatism."

There was a clear curatorial decision to place new works directly alongside those from over 100+ years ago. I enjoyed a playful and unsettling gaze from Síomha Harrington’s nude that was hung adjacent to Suzanne Van Damme’s 1941 piece of a female figure surrounded by severed male heads. The pairing shouldn't work on paper, and yet it does, completely. Both women, decades apart, saying the same thing: we are not your muses. The same conversation, decades apart. The two works were speaking to each other.

Elsa Schiaparelli's garments have always carried the reminder that provocation doesn't only live on canvas. Seeing her own paintings alongside pieces by Méret Oppenheim, Jane Graverol, and Tali Lennox I felt a distinct throughline: eroticism as a political language, not a spectacle

Mendel put it plainly in interviews around the show: "Eroticism has always been a tool for resistance against waves of conservatism." Those words landed with real weight.

Honestly, standing there in January looking at all this work, that framing made everything feel weirdly urgent and current. This wasn't a show designed to shock, but more designed to make you think about who gets to express desire, who gets to be desired, and who has historically controlled that narrative. Questions that always carry a certain brevity to me as someone who commodifies being desired

I also had a moment with the Elsa Schiaparelli pieces that I wasn't expecting. I knew her vaguely — the fashion designer, the lobster dress, that whole world — but seeing her work in this light totally re-contextualized her fashion work for me.

Also — and maybe this is just me — there's something about going to see art about female desire and identity that makes you reflect on your own relationship with all that stuff. I caught myself standing in front of one painting for way longer than I meant to, just kind of... thinking. Lovely

If you get the chance to catch anything else in this series, go. When I can , I’ll be following this up with Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A. Maybe i’ve now cornered you into it too… More exhibitions (europe-wide?) ahead, please.