"Donald Duck paints himself, creates himself. The brush in his hand sketches kidneys, breasts, vulva, and penis. From which hole are the eggs laid? Where did the hand come from? And how does Donald feel about all of this? In his book »Entenhausen«, Patrick Bahners explains that the Ducks are not ducks in the conventional sense. They are quasi-human ducks, anatid hybrid creatures who are »[still] very much aware of their evolutionary relationship to waterfowls«.¹
A few years ago, Christine Moldrickx found a colouring book in a supermarket, with which children can learn to draw the world's most famous duck correctly. Printed on the cover: Donald Duck painting himself with a swinging brush. Still half formed, indicated by black lines, he fills himself with colour, with life.
This inconspicuous cover is the starting point for the watercolour and drawing series »Eenden-bewustzijn«. In the space created by painting, fantasies, desire, lust and fear turn into fluid facts. The boundary between animal and human softens. Also the perception of the body and the difference between inside and outside become less univocal. Speaking for art: the beginning and the end are left open.
1. Helmut Höge, Die Donaldisten hier und heute,
https://blogs.taz.de/hausmeisterblog/2013/10/25/
groschenhefteschundliteraturpulp-fiction."
Watercolours and pen sketches inspired by the existential and ontological question raised by an image of Donald Duck painting himself into existence, text in English and German.
Saddle stitched, stapled, 30 x 21 cm, 32 not numbered pages, ed/500, Archiv Untergrund Publ. 03, Dusseldorf 2023
