The Dahu

21 × 29 cm

2025

Colored pencil on paper

Clémentine Taupin draws from the folkloric legend of the chasse au Dahu in her native Puisaye. The Dahu — a mythical creature with uneven legs that doom it to walk endlessly around mountain slopes — has long existed in rural French humor as a rite of passage, often used to tease newcomers or children with mock hunting expeditions. Taupin translates this playful, trickster mythology into a detailed colored pencil drawing, reimagining the hybrid animal with its blood-red eyes, goat-like horns, and composite body. The work embodies both the tenderness of childhood stories and the absurdity of collective inventions that pass through generations.