COLOURS OF A SLEEPLESS KNIGHT
(Exhibition, 2020)
A storm is coming.
I lock the door of the shop and make my way to the train station.
I don’t know how long I will be away or how long it will take.
Nobody knows.
As the train arrives, my thoughts turn to the past.. ..
It was a beautiful summer day somewhere in the suburbia in Southeast
Austria. The smell of freshly cut grass was in the air and birds of all
kinds were singing their lovely songs. My older brother and I were in our
room, drawing. Meanwhile our mother would prepare lunch. I used to
draw wholesome things such as animals and landscapes, while my
older brother preferred to draw more combative things like planes or
cars. That day I drew a smiling sun, and my brother drew a knight on a
rearing horse. I liked his drawing and asked him if he would give it to
me, but he said no. When he wasn't looking, I took the
drawing and carefully tucked it into my backpack.
After lunch, my brother and I went to the nearby forest to play hide and
seek, a game we would play for hours sometimes, just like on that day.
It was my turn to look for him and so I went. My brother was
a skilled hider. Time passed by, slowly but gradually the sun started to
climb down the remote mountains and the sky was tinted orange and
red before it turned dark purple. I wondered where my brother was
hiding and was afraid that something bad might have happened to him.
The fir trees started laying spooky shadows onto the ground, the air
turned grey and chilly. But my brother was still nowhere to be seen.
Instead, I found a plant which I had never seen before. Embraced by
the moss green leaves, an abundance of hairy and softly fragrant
berries in all imaginable colours was hanging down the twigs, some
colours were so unique I did not even know their names. I picked a few
berries, put them into my backpack and decided to continue the quest
of looking for my brother, without success. Eventually, all lights
diminished and I found myself buried by complete darkness.
Not only did I lose my sight, I also lost track of how to get back home.
Thankfully I had a hand torch. I switched it on and opened my
backpack. There they are, the colourful berries I picked from before,
deliciously glowing and lying next to the stolen knight
drawing. Having a little bad conscience, I admired the knight under the
dim flashlight. My stomach started to growl, the noise was amplified by
its echo in the lonely forest. I decided to eat the berries.
The red one looked so inviting, I put it to my mouth. The flesh
was juicy and the taste was a mixture of bitter and sweet,
while chewing it also reminded me of walnuts. It didn't take
long for me to notice that my surroundings started moving.
Strange creatures arose from the gloominess and
were scanning me from all sides. They looked furry, massive
and had glowing red eyes. I was shivering in fear! I held tightly
on to the hand torch, trying to beam the monsters away. In my
moment of despair, a tree next to me with a friendly face
leaned over and encouraged me to try the yellow berry. I
frantically swallowed a yellow one without getting much of a
taste, but nothing at all seemed to happen. Then I looked up
to the sky, only to realise how the moon and the gleaming
stars had appeared and they were much bigger than usual.
The huge satellites and constellations were enamelled into the
i n k y s k y. I c a l m e d d o w n a b i t a n d w a n t e d
to admire my brother's drawing again, but it was not in the
backpack anymore. It was gone. How could I be so stupid to
lose my brother and now his drawing, too.
When I was about to get angry with myself, I could hear a loud
neighing of a horse from far far away. Then out of nowhere, a
giant knight on a giant horse emerged in front of
me, whose face I couldn't behold at all.
Awestricken and unable to move, I stared into the face of the
knight, a total abyss of the void.
To my surprise, the knight started to speak to me. After
hearing my story, the noble knight brought me back home to
my mother's house on a whim. Still bedazzled, I said "thank
you" and went into the house, trying not to wake my mother
up. Carefully, I opened the door of my bedroom. In his
bed, my brother was sleeping, ever so peacefully and the
knight drawing was laying just next to his head on the bedside table.
"I would enter your sleep if I could,
and guard you there,
and slay the thing that hounds you,
as I would if it had the courage
to face me in fair daylight.
But I cannot come in
unless you dream of me.”
― Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
Video edited by Yvonne Du.