Sorcha Dallas

Flesh at War with Enigma highlights an idiom in contemporary art that resorts deliberately and anachronistically to surreal forms and motifs. Surreal compositions unfold here in their empowering probability. They appear as prospective knowledge, as pessimistic assurance and as explosive mises-en-scenes, running counter to conventional meanings – to what seems to us to be known, familiar and secure: ‘Some of the body’s movements and activities in these works might seem strange now, but they will become normal in the future.’ (Enrico David)