"Persistence of Memory" - Salvador Dali

Melting clocks, an unidentifiable creature, and the stillness of this piece invite us into a sort of dream world. Upon first glance at Salvador Dali’s painting, “The Persistence of Memory,” melting clocks grab our attention. The next aspect that jumps out is the animal-like creature upon which one of the softening watches rests. In the background, we see a bleak landscape. A sandy beach stretches to a body of absolute still water; the water meets the featureless sky at the horizon line. In the right side of the painting, one of the lifeless watches drapes over the branch of a dead olive tree. Ants covering a closed pocket watch are the only life form to be seen. From the dark shadows cast on the scene, we can predict the time is either dawn or dusk. The objects of nature found in this painting are very distinct and very recognizable; however, the scene would not be found in real life. This combination of real and imagined constitutes the art movement of Surrealism, of which Dali is most famous for (Art Beyond Sight). “The Persistence of Memory” portrays a dream-like world where time is irrelevant. A comparison/contrast between the conscious and subconscious convinces us that the idea of time may be ineffective not only dreams but also in reality.

Drooping watches, a symbol of the passing of time, are the focal point of this piece. Quite large in comparison to other objects in the painting, the watches are positioned on lifeless objects: the dead olive tree, an inanimate table, and an apparent unconscious life form. This is the first persuasion in the argument against time: the idea of time may be as useless as, say, a dead tree. A forth pocket watch, in its original form, lies closed on the table. Ants crawl around the watch, suggesting the watch is organic and edible. This notion presents the idea that the decay of time is as ordinary as ants feeding on organic matter.

The large animal-like creature in the center of the piece appears to be either dead or fast asleep. The extensively long eyelashes and resemblance of a human nose suggests a distorted human profile; the body and lifeless tail of the creature suggest some type of animal. This merging of human and animal form is a strategy called anthropomorphism. The distorted watch atop the lifeless body is perhaps the strongest point of argument in this piece. A “dream world” theme is central to the painting; the sleeping monster suggests the simple action of dreaming. Drooping upon its back, the clock suggests the distortion of time in this dreamland.

The backdrop offers a beautiful scene, like that of a postcard, yet it shows absolutely no signs of life. Even the body of water is completely motionless. In these, we see the natural world. On the contrary, melting clocks are not objects we expect to see in everyday life, nor is a morphed animal-human creature. Here, the comparison between nature and technology is made (Salvador Dali Museum). This idea relates to the contrast between our conscious minds and our subconscious minds. Placed into a scene where the theme of a dream world is consistent, the one form of technology – the clocks – is irrelevant and extraneous. Even the clocks do not represent technology in reality, as they are distorted and ineffective. The correlation to be made is the idea that technology, time in particular, is in fact completely irrelevant when it comes to our subconscious minds. In a dream, no sense of time is kept. No measures prevent us from acting upon things we yearn for. Within this comparison, the strategy of example can also be seen. The sleeping creature, while part of a contrast between real and imagined, also acts as an illustration of the correlation between time and the subconscious. Reality would not present us with a creature of this type; only a dream would do so. The distorted clock resting upon this imaginary creature suggests that the sense of time is absolutely irrelevant to the dream world. Within the subconscious, as in this dream-world, nature is the only certainty. Technology, and the measurement of time in particular, is uncertain.

The idea of time distortion offers the most emotion-stirring aspect of the painting with the use of pathos. While it is obvious that time is distorted in the land of the subconscious, we begin to wonder if time is distorted and ineffective in even our waking lives. Why are humans so obsessed with the idea of time, when we have absolutely no control over it? In our fast-paced society, we are constantly looking for ways to stretch our time and squeeze as many activities into our schedules as possible. Yet, when it comes to things most dear to us, such as family and friendship, time tends to have no relevancy. This use of time distortion to generate emotions constitutes the appeal of pathos.

A last comparison to be made of the piece is that of hardness, which is symbolic of certainty, and softness, which represents uncertainty. The “hard” objects in the painting are certain: the jagged cliffs, dead tree, table, even the beach. However, the “soft” objects mark areas of unknown: the melting clocks and the sleeping beast (Salvador Dali Museum). Time, as our clocks measure for us, we think should be a certainty. But do we have any control of it? Absolutely not. We may have some control over what we do with the time in our lives, but we cannot stop time or make it go faster; we cannot go backwards or forwards. We have only the here and now, and no one on earth is powerful enough to change that.

As an audience, we must ask ourselves why these distinctions are being made. Why the barren atmosphere? Why a creature of the unknown, rather than a representation of humans in reality? In using the compare/contrast strategy to differentiate between opposing ideas, we must be careful not to offer a mere either-or-arguement; the audience must be able to take more away from the piece than that. These comparisons are not made to present the idea that our lives demand a view of either the concious or subconscious, but rather that while the land of the conscious and the land of the subconscious are certainly two different worlds, the sense of time may be similar in both. Though we worry about keeping time in our everyday lives, nothing can be done about it.

The melting of clocks can be seen, in reality, as an indication that time and the machine that measures it are ineffective. All things decay in time, as can be seen with the dead olive tree in the left of the painting. Crawling ants also indicate the decay of that which they are surrounding, in this case the one watch that remains sturdy. We can conclude that even those things that appear strong and purposeful will come to a point where their usefulness fades away, and they become useless (Salvador Dali Museum). Even a concept as valued as much as time is just that: a conception. A conception that we have no control over; a conception that, in reality, is ineffective.

"Salvador Dali and The Persistence of Memory." Art Beyond Sight. 12 Nov. 28. http://www.artbeyondsight.org/ahtts/dali.shtml.

"Clocking In With Salvador Dali: Salvador Dali's Melting Watches." Salvador Dali Museum. 12 Nov 2008. http://www.salvadordalimuseum.org/education/documents/clocking_in.pdf