Things Fall Apart; The Centre Cannot Hold

This website is a collection of creative pieces we have made to explore themes and methodology of artistic and literary “-ism’s” of the modernist period. The “-ism’s” we are investigating with these pieces are surrealism, dada, imagism, and modernism. We took a creative approach to exploring the ideas of these “-isms” as a unique way to delve into the processes of modernist artists through replication of technique, method, and philosophy behind each “-ism.” The media forms we employed in these explorations are collage, poetry, and film. From the exploration of mental processes in relation to language, and syntax experimentation of Stein, to the cultural criticism of Höch’s intentionally absurd visual art, we feel as though the complex topics championed by the respective “-ism’s” are best examined through creative forms as they originally were.

Gertrude Stein - Julian Hietter
Hannah Hoch - Lila
Luis Bunuel - Cassandra
Rene Magritte - Z
H.D. /Jean Arp - Kade