Becoming Horses

Swedish artist Wallander plays with the comics medium in this wry meditation on art and self-expression. Three little girls drawn in loose, squiggly lines wander a shifting landscape populated by eccentric artists working in unlikely mediums. One woman lives in a house-sized replica of her womb; another is an island and swallows visitors for inspiration; others try to transform into horses or gather for a group-cry. The jittery linework suggests Jules Feiffer, with similar accuracy at capturing human gestures in a doodle. So does the self-analytical dialogue, peppered with pithy observations such as “I haven’t made a single thing since I got here, but the suffering has been splendid” and “I’ve preserved my childlike sense of wonder. I’ve preserved it very hard.” The spindly characters move through colorful background collages of smudgy paint, photography, patterns, textures, and even sculpture, making this exploration of the artistic urge appropriately varied to look at. Wallander’s gently philosophical ramble is likely to appeal to creative types who periodically get stuck on the question of what creativity is for. [em](Feb.) [/em]