Surrealism and public transport

Clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks that trams, trains, ships, planes and buses embody characteristics of the uncanny. When visiting the 'Another World: Dalí, Magrite, Miró and the Surrealists' exhibition at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh (http://www.whatsonwhen.com/sisp/index.htm?fx=event&event_id=237726), my attention was drawn to a large canvas by Paul Delvaux, depicting a Brussels tramcar clanking and groaning round a bend in a rather eerily deserted street, observed only by a number of mannequin-like nudes. The tram's bug-like front end features and slightly phallic quality as it protrudes from a street corner add to the sense of weirdness, as does the juxtaposition of shop windows, housing, a cleared development site and factories.

Delavaux once observed of trams and trains that 'these things come from my childhood... they have an intense sense of life; they are things which are an integral part of daily life, things that people use but don't see...'

I think that he was spot-on.