PHANTOM VALLEY

PHANTOM VALLEY is a story of a becoming -- a becoming of an artist. I have long been fascinated by the idea that our lives, our emotions, our actions, our sense of who we are and who we are to become are propelled and influenced by forces invisible, mysteriously lurking underneath our conscious self. Whether they originate from our own psyche or spring forth from the collective unconscious, or are the engraved traces of our ancestral and genetic memory, they draw us closer, step by step, to a seemingly predetermined path towards the purpose of our existence.

Within this dance of interdependent forces known and unknown, there seems to be a deep reciprocity between what we create and how the very things we create, inevitably create us. The ideas, the images, the feelings, the sounds, coming out of the hidden depths of our psyche, end up leading us towards realizations, discoveries of our potentialities, and transformations: in other words, becomings.

In PHANTOM VALLEY I wanted to explore what happens when an artist allows himself to be led by the very work he is compelled to create, delving deep into his own unconscious mind, and letting the images, the feelings, the vague understandings create circumstances in which he comes face to face with the very purpose of his life. And in that crossroad, make the decision to either jump into the fire so that out of the ashes he can recreate himself and embody the journey of his life, or to walk away and lead a smoldering existence.