Pictures of The Lost World

Inspired by the engravings published in the first travel accounts of the explorers of the Americas, such as those by De Bry and others depicting the New World, (particularly the land of El Dorado and Guiana), I started a series of pictures adding layers of geographic realism and fictional narrative to the fantastic creatures imagined by European illustrators. The maps and publications of this period depict all kinds of monstrous creatures springing from the mediaeval imagination, spurred by the unbelievable accounts of the newly explored continent.

The anatomical descriptions of natives with short necks were taken literally by the illustrators of Sir Walter Raleigh's voyage to the land of Guiana, the Lost World, in today's Venezuela, confirming in their fancy the existence of the Blemmias, creatures with faces on their chests.

But the fascinating sixteenth century also sees the beginning of modern anthropology, with the incredibly accurate writings of Jean de Léry, a Calvinist settler in Rio de Janeiro, describing the life of local cannibals with impeccable objectivity and even sympathy.

I represent the strikingly visual aspect of this New World, land of projections, where the Eldorado is nothing but a hallucination of conquerors lost in fierce uncharted wilderness; but I also work on the representation of possible scenes in familiar settings, such as the natives in the Yopo ceremony in front of the mountains in the valley of Caracas before it was taken by Spaniards.

The layers of landscape, narrative and speculation overlap and integrate on these thinly yet colorfully treated canvases, bringing the strangest lost worlds back to life.

Paul Desenne