Today it’s time to swing by the Sigmund Freud Museum in London to see ‘The Symptomatic Surreal’ a voyage through the mind of Leonora Carrington as she reels from the horrors of the Second World War and the those of incarceration in a mental institute. I think this crystalises the moment when the narrative shifts from seeing her as a victim bedevilled by the crushing cruelties of that time and instead highlight how art saved her. How her own dedication to drawing, painting, imagining saved her from that dark place and built her protective walls of strength once more.

The pictures are far from wonderful: it’s always a challenge to take pictures in a small, crowded gallery with very bright lights and far too many reflective surfaces. Getting my camera to focus on the drawings and not the glass covering them didn’t always work. I am hoping the accompanying book — which should arrive today, second printing! as they had sold out when I was there — has much better images of course, as well as some interesting essays. But for all of you who won’t be able to get there yourselves, may this virtual visit offer you a vicarious simulacrum.

The video on YT is silent because Google ‘We Didn’t Mean It When We Said “Don’t Be Evil”‘ claims that they can scrape your indie music to train their plagiarism machine. So put on the video and play your own music of choice or enjoy the ambient sounds of your life as you watch.

Here are a few other images from the Freud Museum: he did like his ‘primitive’ artifacts.