“Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924-Today” at the Design Museum proved that avant-garde art inevitably infiltrates mainstream culture. Salvador Dalí’s melting clocks appeared on furniture, while René Magritte’s visual paradoxes influenced contemporary product design.
The exhibition traced how surrealist principles — unexpected juxtapositions, dream logic, subconscious exploration — now shape everything from fashion to architecture. What began as artistic rebellion became a commercial strategy.
Seeing everyday objects transformed through surrealist sensibility reminded me of my own writing process. I take familiar social situations and reveal their underlying strangeness, making the dull mysterious through careful observation.
The show’s exploration of desire as the driving force behind both art and consumption connected directly to my characters’ struggles with authentic versus performed identity. We’re all living in surrealist landscapes now.
Posted from London, where reality and dreams negotiate their boundaries through design.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
