L´oeil de Lynch

David Lynch: cult fiction

Text: Olivier Séguret // Photos: Patrick Swirc

Welcome to Lynch world, where the darkness and light of dreams become living, pulsating figures on screen - and in his paintings, photographs and music, too.

David Lynch has been in the news a great deal. Inland Empire was shown at the Venice Film Festival; The Air Is On Fire, an exhibition of his paintings and drawings, opened in Paris at the Fondation Cartier; and he´ll be participating in festivities marking the 60th year of the Cannes Film Festival this month. He´s a darling of the festival and the festival is his darling. Photographer, painter, filmmaker and musician. Lynch, 61, has been constantly exploring the virtual world, identity issues and other crucial topics - light years in advance of his time.

What kind of traveler are you?

I always get a little antsy whenever I stop working. The only place that´s right is home. When I work, I need to be in my city, Los Angeles. I´d go as far as saying that I need to be at home with my editing and sound equipment. As soon as I stop working, I take to the road again. But I never really feel like I´m on vacation: there are no vacations for me; for artists, travel is like work, raw material. Travel means seeing people, discovering civilizations and observing similarities and differences. I love going to new places, unknown spots, but I´m not into being a tourist or some kind of Amazon adventurer. Filmmakers are invited to festivals worldwide. I like this kind of "traveling festival"; it´s almost like the world decides for me, like the world takes me places. I´d almost say that destination is irrelevant because everything that has a story is interesting.

What kind of wanderer are you?

A highly contemplative one. The photos I take are great illustrations of my strolls. I have two kinds of favorite contemplations: natural settings and industrial zones. I´m particularly moved by any kind of sign of life in nature: dew, sap, bees, moss, whatever, but particularly all those little oozing forms of secretion that are eternally part of life. I am constantly aware of how man belongs to nature. I´m fascinated by the fusion of man and nature. It may not look like it, but to a certain extent I´m looking for that kind of phenomenon in the abandoned wastelands of postindustrial society: rust, dust, abandoned factories overgrown with weeds, old pipes that drip, walls blackened by soot, smoke billowing from smokestacks. It´s a form of nostalgia, because this industry is rapidly disappearing, particularly in the United States.

What kind of art-lover are you?

As everyone could see in the Cartier Fondation exhibition, Francis Bacon really traumatized me: I´ve been in love with his work since the 1960s! But influence can be a prison, and you have to learn to escape from it. Surrealism also had a big impact on me. I put as much energy into distortion and twists as I do in actually creating, in the strict sense of the term.

What kind of child are you?

I never had the sensation of actually leaving childhood. You can no longer be a child, yet you cling to childhood. What elese is an artist but a sophisticated child? Like a child, an artist needs to be uninhibited when creating; he´s not judging, he´s not afraid of anything when it comes to his art, he´s not concerned about what he´s going to become. A child dives spontaneously into his material, mixing things instinctively, going on attraction instead of intellect. There is nothing better in the world than this.

What kind of musician are you?

I don´t really call myself a musician, although I make an effort. I can´t sing at all and I´ll never sing. But I´m fascinated by the possibility of manipulating the voice in real time. There´s a technique that enables you to change not only the pitch range but also the texture of the voice. Just imagine: you hear an unrecognizable voice and you immediately react to it. Isn´t that beautiful? It´s a little tough on identity, but a lot of things these days are tough on identity. One day I asked a psychiatrist if therapy could influence my creativity, and he told me "David, to be honest, I have to say yes, perhaps it would." I shook his hand and left. I don´t know what is real and what is not. I go on intuition, on childhood, once again.

What kind of human being are you?

A French friend of mine is always saying, "I´m French, so I think, therefore I am." I don´t think we actually have a body. I´ve been practing transcendental mediation for 33 years and it´s given me a profound love for the world and for life. It may sound slightly jarring, or seem a little out there to you, but I´m optimistic because I feel that humanity is growing more aware. I sense that a genuine dynamic for peace is emerging, and I´d like to convince people of the power that they have within themselves, of all the energy, the love, the fullness we have inside. I am not deeply against any one person or against any religion. Yes, I really love the world and I feel very happy.