The Silence Of The Hippo Black Folktales - David Bohm
The imagination of the Black Continent unmercifully breaks down our European preconception of what a folktale is supposed to look like.
Poetic, somewhat absurd and in some places dark – such are the short folktales of this book. Most of them come out of traditional African folklore though, in the rendition of children storytellers, with a rather distinctive flavor.
The texts arrived into the hands of the Czech artist David Böhm, in the suitcase of his sister Terezie as a stack of student essays from a small Central African school. The imagination of the Black Continent unmercifully breaks down our European preconception of what a folktale is supposed to look like.
Somewhat shocking to children, it is a singularly refreshing comic strip for adults.
Review
About the Author
Terezie Böhm applies her techniques to children's books, where she develops kids' creativity in a fun way. Author of book and magazine illustrations. The output of his work may resemble a drawing diary, graffiti, cartoons, comics, conceptual art, slapstick, sports performances, art of collaboration, physical experiments, improvised choreography or theater performances. Important for him are processiveness, time-lapse principle, overcoming the pitfalls, intertwining the media, experimenting, adhering to and exceeding the rules, creative dialogue, irony, seriousness, playfulness, eternal incompleteness. In other words, he does not create drawings