Eléphant spatial 1972

Editor: So this is Dalí’s “Éléphant spatial,” made in 1972, using watercolor and ink. The long-legged elephant carrying an obelisk has such a peculiar, haunting quality. What do you see when you look at this piece? Curator: The emphasis here lies in the artistic *production* itself. Dalí's use of watercolor and ink is not simply illustrative, but an integral part of the work’s meaning. Notice the underpainting, visible beneath the darker ink lines. This layering unveils the process, challenging notions of artistic mastery as something spontaneous or innate. It reveals the labor. Editor: So the *way* it's made is more important than the symbolism of the elephant? Curator: The imagery certainly demands attention, but consider *how* that imagery is presented. Those spindly legs, the heavy obelisk—they are rendered with materials accessible even today to student artists, leveling the playing field, suggesting accessibility in artistic endeavor. What is being consumed here? The image or the making of it? Editor: It feels like the process democratizes the image somehow, less about high art and more about...creation itself? The fragility of the materials too makes a stark contrast with the heavy obelisk the elephant carries. Curator: Exactly. And those are choices Dalí makes in its production and the materials. How might this elevation of the "making of" influence other contemporary art and its accessibility for emerging artists? Editor: It changes everything if we focus on the production, the making, and the means available! I see the artwork completely differently now, considering how artists are using art material nowadays, and how accessible it is to get into the practice of it. Thank you! Curator: Indeed! Materiality, labor, and accessibility open doors to appreciating Dalí, shifting the focus from solely interpreting the symbol, to the method in which its made and the process for emerging artists.