Ulrika Byttner.
Quebec is my very special nightmare. I’m always staying in a hotel and for some unknown reason it’s always in November. It’s probably Thanksgiving. Papa wears
that strange uniform of his and dances a foxtrot with Juliette – who the hell is she by the way?
I really wonder how anyone sensible enough could possibly dance a foxtrot with Papa. She doesn’t seem to have realised what he looks like, or has she? She must be blind, that’s the only explanation I can possibly think of.
Anyway, this guy, Mike, I guess, turns up in an Alpha-Romeo; red of course, what else ? He seems to be a close friend of Juliette’s. For some strange reason, I can tell he plays golf even though he doesn’t seem to have taken his gear with him.
Why would he by the way; there’s no golf course round here or is there?
Papa and Juliette keep on dancing, slowly the foxtrot turns into a sensual tango. Are they taking their clothes off ? Maybe they will dance on like this forever. Could anyone tell ?
In the bar Mike, who seems to know everybody in this place, starts chatting with
Charlie and Oscar, two old Yankees who are completely boozed on cheap whiskey.
They raise their glasses in a toast to the glory of India and the British Empire.
Charlie goes on telling stories about the time when he worked as a pilot for Delta Airlines and travelled the world. There’s this story about a Zulu he met in Lima and who talked him in to taking ten kilos of pure cocaine on board in a special X-ray proof suitcase that would easily get him through customs at the airport. Unfortunately for Charlie, it didn’t work out as planned and he ended up in jail for ten long years in the Sierra Madre.
This doesn’t make any sense.
Suddenly I can hear an echo of bravos. Mike, Oscar and Charlie gulp down their drinks and leave the bar as if something serious was about to take place. Papa and Juliette dance through the dining-room fading out on their way to the big staircase.
I stand alone in the hall, the sound of bravos coming closer.
Bio ~ Ulrika Byttner.
Ulrika Byttner is a Swedish born artist who has been working in France for over 20 years. She graduated from Ecole Supérieure d’Art de Toulouse in the south of France and is based in Paris. Her artistic practice investigates different fields of drawing using traditional techniques as well as computer animation. She has exhibited widely in France, Germany, Austria and Sweden. Byttner teaches drawing and computer graphics in several art schools in the Paris area.