Green Tea

Leonora Carrington, 1942 · Gallery 522 · Floor 5

Okay. So, this starts at the court of King George V. Leonora Carrington is being presented to society. Formal gown. Curtsy. The whole thing. Her family has made a fortune in textiles, and the plan is for her to marry well and behave herself. But, she's got other plans. She studies painting. Then, at twenty, leaves for France with Max Ernst. Ya know, famous artist. Twenty-six years older. Also married. Her father takes that about as well as you'd expect. Then the war comes. Ernst is arrested, and Carrington flees to Spain, where she has a severe breakdown. Her family has her committed to an asylum in Santander. There, she's given Cardiazol, a drug that causes seizures. That's the treatment. She's twenty-three. Her family sends her childhood nanny to collect her. By submarine, according to the story. That detail is a little harder to pin down. So, the plan is to send her to another institution, in South Africa. But in Lisbon, she somehow gets away and reaches the Mexican embassy. A diplomat she knew, Renato Leduc, marries her so she can get out of Europe. She reaches New York. And in 1942, she paints this. So. Look at the woman. Wrapped from her neck to her ankles in something that looks like cowhide. Her arms pinned inside. Eyes closed. A crown of spikes. And she's standing inside a circle drawn on the grass. People often read her as Carrington herself. And beside her, that purple thing that looks a little like a heart. Some kind of pot, with two hairy legs and cloven hooves. Four little deer heads peeking out of the top. As if that's what's growing in it. Then look at the horse and the pregnant dog thing. Both have trees growing out of their tails. Follow the chains. Each is chained to the tree growing out of the other one. Neither's getting very far. And underneath this garden, right along the bottom, there's another whole world. Bats. Vultures. Things wrapped up like little bodies. All that beneath a beautifully kept lawn. She calls it Green Tea. Which clears up absolutely nothing. But look at the woman's wrapping again. It looks like a straitjacket. It also looks a little like a cocoon. Is she trapped in there, or is something changing?

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