Family Tree by Edith Rimmington (Interpretation and Analysis)

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Family Tree
Source: Art UK
While many people associate the Surrealist movement with the likes of Salvador Dalí, the truth is that this artistic movement is much broader and more interesting than the work of the few Surrealist artists who are often featured on museum walls.

For example, the art of British artist Edith Rimmington has largely been forgotten by the world of art history. Rimmington was a writer, painter, and photographer who became involved in the British Surrealist movement early on. I first encountered her work while researching her fellow female Surrealist Marion Elizabeth Adnams, and I was immediately drawn to her piece Family Tree.

Family Tree is actually an amalgamation of photograph and paint, but, for the purposes of this post, I’m just going to call it a painting. The image depicts a long, metal chain—the sort of thing that might commonly be used in shipyards—laying on a wooden dock that stretches endlessly into the horizon, while a black and white snake slithers over the links of the chain. Black water laps at each side of the dock.

To me, Family Tree is reminiscent of the eponymous chain that “keeps us together” from Fleetwood Mac’s hit song “The Chain.” I see the subject of Family Tree as the endless line of blood that links each generation to the next. Unlike the traditional family tree, this chain stretches endlessly in both directions, playing with the ideas of time and descent.

While I read this image to be one of tremendous strength, there is also something ominous about it. The snake, the black water, and the halo-shaped moon combine to imply something dark and frightening. Perhaps, it represents the dark side of family, a constraint that ties unwilling and unhappy individuals together. Rimmington was interested in the idea of metamorphosis, and it is easy to see how that idea could apply to family, turning blood into a blessing or a curse as the need demands.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.

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