Diary of a Genius

The uneasy marriage of reason and nightmare which has dominated the 20th century has given birth to an increasingly surreal world.

Comedy and Tragedy, Gilbert Bridge, Barbican Centre, City of London, EC2Y

More and more, we see that the events of our own times make sense in terms of surrealism rather than any other view…

Petticoat Lane, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, E1

…whether the grim facts of the death-camps, Hiroshima and Viet Nam, or our far more ambiguous unease at organ transplant surgery and the extra-uterine foetus…

Ofra Zimbalista's Blue Men, Maya House, Borough High Street, Southwark, SE1

…the confusions of the media landscape with its emphasis on the glossy, lurid and bizarre, its hunger for the irrational and sensational.

Patricio Forrester's Deptford Marbles, New Cross Road, Deptford, Lewisham, SE14

JG Ballard’s introduction to Salvador Dali’s Diary of a Genius (1974)

His and Hers

Jimmy: Why don’t we have a little game?

Patricio Forrester's His and Hers, Giffin Square, Deptford, Lewisham, SE8

Let’s pretend that we’re human beings, and that we’re actually alive.

From Jon Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956)