The Joker: Self-transformation through art and dream

'Perhaps each of us needs the Joker at some time in our lives to deride the self we take so seriously...'

The Joker: Self-transformation through art and dream

Chris Hoggett

Published by Clover Cliff, Cheltenham, 2004. 352 pages.

£25.00 excluding p&p.

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Short review by Peter Limbrick

Chris Hoggett, artist, author and teacher, has, since the 1980's suffered many years of depression with feelings of fear, loss and abandonment in a world of chaotic darkness. He might still be in this private and personal hell but for the Joker who entered his life and work and led him gradually to a better place, pointing to the possibility of transformation of self and of the outer world, and bringing hope of rebirth after annihilation.

Who was this Joker and where did he come from? In this marvellous book with its hundreds of illustrations illuminated by hand-written notes, the author describes how the Joker arrived, almost imperceptibly, in his drawings and paintings – a body of work which the artist executed in his depression, first as an attempt at understanding and self-discovery and then with the intervention of an art therapist. The Joker, once recognised in his many guises, signalled a turning point in the author's fortunes.

Perhaps each of us needs the Joker at some time in our lives to deride the self we take so seriously, to remind us to take a closer look at that which we too readily dismiss as absurd and to show us the cell door is open after all if we look closely enough. This book is a treasure for everyone who has ever wondered at their own dreams and nightmares, for everyone who has ever been a painter, a poet, a therapist, a parent or a child.