Imagine a huge city surrounded by a wall. No one enters and no one leaves. The doors were closed during the 50s and the city followed her own path. The world forgot the city, and the city forgot the world. Becoming a separated spirit, an autonomous entity. Alive, swallowing inhabitants and spreading a strange disease, result of destructive and obsolete consumerism. A city where objects think and dream. A place where machines live and humans die.
Bastien Lecouffe Deharme, source
This is where the characters reside and evolve in Bastien Lecouffe Deharme’s mind, combining science fiction and dark fantasy together in a symbolic, mythological, and timeless world.
Classically trained at Université de Haute Bretagne in Rennes (Brittany), Bastien combines all his skills together to create a digital hybrid. Drawing, photography and paint are all scanned and altered using Photoshop, providing him with a unique end product that is visually distinct from his contemporaries.
When asked about the strong, warrior-like women in his work, Bastien responds:
The more I question my work, the more I realize that I paint myself through my desires. When I say “desires,” I am not just talking about the sexual sphere. I portray what fascinates me, attracts me. The female figure, obviously, but not in a lascivious, submissive way. I have no interest into painting a “male-oriented” side of desire, and all those [macho] clichés. I see beauty in strength, confidence, and willpower.
Artistic inclinations also run in the family. He is the great-grandchild of Lise Deharme and Paul Deharme, important figures of the Surrealist artistic movement. But in addition to the surreal, there’s also great deal of symbolism present too. Bastien combines visual concepts from religion and mythology with contemporary and modern iconography.
As inspirations and containers for the essential concepts, ideas, and symbols of our existences as humans. Religions are the greatest stories and myth, and the foundations of our civilizations. In that regard, I am fascinated with religions, the meaning behind those and the rituals that comes with it. Because they are part of the story of humanity, reflections of its fears and weaknesses. Through symbols and stories we can process and communicate the essential concepts of our existence. The fall of the angel of light. The one who spoke his voice against the almighty, was sentenced, fell, and took pride from it. Icarus, Sisyphus, and many other symbols of ascension, struggles and fall. Those obsess me because they are symbols of quest, fight, and willpower. They picture what I consider being human should mean: more than just being alive, the duty to exist. The more I process this question, the more stories come to mind, ancient or modern, from Lady Godiva to Blade Runner.
You can find Bastian’s work in numerous well-known publications. Clients include National Geographic, Random House, Spectrum, Applibot, Tor Books, and SFX Magazine to name a few, and he has most recently been extended an offer to have some of his characters published onto collectible Magic Cards. He has also produced his first graphic novel entitled Memories of Retrocity. Currently the graphic novel is only available in French, though he is working on an English version.
Check out more of Bastien Lecouffe Deharme’s artwork on his website or Instagram.
