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Daydreams
aren't easy to control. Even in conscious thought, the mind
wanders into ideas that are as nonsensical as those experienced
in deep sleep. In Haunted, renowned French artist Philippe
Dupuy crosses the blurred line that separates dreams from
daydreams, using it to create a work that is as introspective
as it is strange.
Dupuy
writes himself into his book as a man who takes up jogging
the day after experiencing a strange dream. While on these
jogs, Dupuy occupies his mind with surreal, highly philosophical
stories which he calls "Run Movies." In one of these movies,
he has a conversation with a homeless woman who seems to have
no eyes but sees him nonetheless, and she teaches him about
self-awareness. In another, he urinates in the front yard
of a highly educated Buddhist duck going through an identity
crisis (as all ducks are wont to do).
In between
each "Run Movie" are short stories that often seem more linear
but still convey varying degrees of strangeness. In "Forest
Friends," a trio of anthropomorphic animals tries to comfort
a friend who has lost his arm. Their bumbling attempts at
empathy and coping—which include drinking, impotence,
and nightmares about quadriplegic peeing—read like a
primetime sitcom about moronic twenty-somethings. But the
tale is still poignant because their sadness and feelings
of ineptitude are absurdly human.
Though
the stories are fictional, each work feels intimately autobiographical—a
look into the wandering mind of an artist while his body is
otherwise engaged. The rough, occasionally childlike black
and white drawings further the idea that these images have
come to him in a dreamlike state. Settings sometimes appear
as no more than quick doodles, as if they are meant to be
as abstract as his thoughts.
The title,
however, suggests that these dreams are not pleasant ones—that
they are demons that stay with him no matter how far he runs.
This is especially apparent when Dupuy revisits themes of
lost body parts and relationships. One doesn't have to study
Freud to see that these dreams may be manifestations of real
life troubles. In one "Run Movie," Dupuy finds himself jogging
with his dead mother. In another story, a minotaur-like animal
wanders a labyrinth, is emasculated by a swarm of maggots,
and snaps when it encounters two creatures having sex.
The deeper
meanings of Dupuy's stories are sometimes too obvious to be
considered particularly deep, but to fault the book for a
little amateur psychology would be to miss the point. Haunted
doesn't seem to be a work meant to entertain or inform the
masses. Instead, it is a work of personal introspection and
perhaps an attempt to exorcise the artist's own demons, whether
they are fictional or not.
(April,
2008)
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