Feminist Surrealist artist Lenora Carrington pushes the boundaries of Hybridity, Boundary Crossing, and Structure in art. In Carrington's work entitled Pastoral (1950) an eerie dream-like picnic is depicted. Figures such as a flying dragon, a hedgehog holding a dead bird, shadow creatures, dogs, an African Kudu, and an androgynous figure in a white cloth fill the canvas. Pastoral decenters the human as the subject because the dream-like landscape dominates the painting rather than the human. Carrington's attention to the environment in her works mirrors the critical post-human idea of environmentalism. Furthermore, The Hedgehog holding a dead bird is standing on two legs with its hand stretched outwards. The Hedgehog is an animal, yet has human characteristics exemplifying its hybridity. Just like many other surrealist artists, Carrington pushed the boundaries of art by playing on the nonsensical. Her work was not confined to the realm of reality, her works often included animal imagery, mythology, and Mexican-Spanish symbolism. Carrington's inclusion of Spanish- Mexican symbolism further connects her to the posthuman art movement, as posthumanism aimed to move away from a white, male, and Eurocentric viewpoint. Animal Imagery as well as mythology can be seen in Pastoral. The longer one looks at Pastoral the more there is to unpack.
Work Cited:
“Leonora Carrington's Pastoral (1950).” Picnic Wit, https://picnicwit.com/literature-arts/art/leonora-carringtons-picnic/.