I - The Despot

II - The Ingenue

III - The Narcissist

IV - The Hypochondriac

V - The Introvert

VI - The Self-indulgent

VII - The Chronic Envious

VIII - The Alarmist

IX - The Pretender

X - The Anachronistic

XI - The Reticent

XII - The Delayer

As related in Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun, the nuns of a convent in provincial France of the XVII century started behaving in outrageous manner out of the blue. According to the official explanations offered by several sources — for the time, that is — a bunch of demons had taken possession of the nuns’ bodies. Exorcisms were performed for years on the wretched ladies and the whole convent became the setting for a grotesque freakshow, complete with endless coups de théâtre and clapping spectators. The Loudun’s demons were depicted as entities with different personalities and occupying various parts of their victims’ bodies. As far as the events of Loudun are concerned, modern interpretations favor to the thesis of possession that of collective hysteria triggered by boredom and superstition and fueled by political intrigue — of course we have a clinical explanation for everything these days. I have however been fascinated for a long time by the notion that disfigurements and unresolved issues afflicting the “psyche” go on living with us all the time together with a “regular” and mediocre personality, to the point they often become independent characters of their own.

In this series I try looking at my own inner strangers, those nesting within and making me do, say and experience things in a similar way to the infamous Loudun’s nuns; knowing the fault lies with someone else, I do not have to take full responsibility for conflicting actions, bouts of cruelty, or even failure. Yet, my little demons are rather petty, they exhibit clownish features and are not fully conscious of the extents of their misery. One day I might write extensively about each one of them.

This is an ongoing project. All images were taken, painted over and processed on iPhone 4S.

iPad sketch. Was the basis for this.

Painted in iPad and vectorized in Illustrator. I can’t remember when I made this, all I know is I was reading Homunculus at the time.