Mathilde Windal

 

I love drawing, painting and inventing stories. Ever since I was a child, comic books and illustrated books have been a source of inspiration for my imagination. I love their ability to make people laugh, to transport readers to other places and immerse them in worlds where fantasy and reality blend together, and where the absurd enters everyday life.

The Little Outer Sun comes from a reflection on the place we give to imagination. I often feel that as we grow up, we value above all that which is productive, useful and profitable, whilst the imagination is relegated to the background and is not considered ‘serious’. However, the world of childhood remains a space where curiosity, play and imagination are central.

Inspired by children’s books and comics, I have created a fantastical, whimsical world, populated by fictional characters, childhood memories, as well as fantastical plants and flowers drawn spontaneously in my sketchbooks. To give form to these imaginary plants and flowers, I used cyanotype, an early photographic technique often associated with herbariums, particularly those of Anna Atkins, who is considered to be the first to have published a book entirely produced using cyanotype from algae.

This technique seemed ideal to me because it connects paper, the vegetal world and the sun, which is needed to expose and develop the cyanotype. Its blue colour allowed me to create different atmospheres, whilst the negatives helped me to construct spaces, textures and backgrounds. I then layered ink drawings on top to add depth to the images and give them a visual and narrative dimension.

In this story and world, I chose not to use any text in order to leave more room for interpretation. I want to explore how drawing can tell a story using only images, emotions, colours and the relationships between the images.