Bestiary

  • Kamila Anna Wojciechowicz
The Bestiary is a series of four pieces that have been specifically created for an exhibition at Chelsea College in 2015. They are based on Jose Luis Borge's "The Book of Imaginary Beings". I have decided to illustrate the Basilisk, Salamander, Fastitocalon and Baldanders. The Basilisk is a well known beast in popculture, mainly thanks to the "Harry Potter" series. I have, however decided to create a less known medieval version of the basilisk. I I continued on working with the same approach while creating the rest of the beasts. Salamanders are generally recognized as small amhibians with tails, and the most popular is the fire salamander. I decided to follow a different path, while discovering another version of the elemental creature, depicted in 1527 by Paracelsus with a head of a man, body of a lion, tail of a serpent and wings of a bat. The Fastitocalon was mainly inspired from the movie "Baron Munchhausen" by Terry Gilliam. The Baladanders (or Proteus) was based on the book cover illustration from 1668 "The Adventurous Simplicissimus" by Grimmelhausen, but I developed the creature and gave it a more sinister appearance.