Imaginative and cunning flight

Af : Kari Sønsthagen

Anne Pedersen (1969) was still training as a graphic designer when the collage received a visit from the publisher Ejnar Agertoft. He suggested to the students that they should make a picture book with its entire action taking place underground. For Anne Pedersen it was a case of no sooner said than done. The result was Hr. Flugt går under jorden (1995) (Mr. Flight Goes Underground). Even before this book with the imaginative story was finished it was sold to the USA, Germany, Norway and the Faroe Island. And several other countries are considering it. It is quite unheard of in the world of Danish children’s books that an unknown young author should be the object of so much interest around the world.

   For her picture pages Anne Pedersen has made use of both coloured crayons, Indian ink and acrylic in order to achieve as varied an expression as possible and to produce structure in her pictures. She has succeeded in devising a completely new pictorial means of expression and is unlike any other Danish illustrator.

   Mr. Flight is a rather unfortunate man. First he tries to rob the National Bank. He fails and is immediately put in prison. He is terribly bored and begins to concoct some secret plan for escape. One night Mr. Flight takes his spoon and begins to dig. But things don’t go all that easily. For he comes across every conceivable kind of person down in the ground, as well, of course, as moles and mice. First he meets a 3,500-year-old cave dweller busy painting on the walls. He says that time simply flies when you are inspired. The next is the driver of a tunnelling machine, who – understandably – has problems with his machine. He only expects to reach the surface in two month, and that is far too long for Mr. Flight to wait, so he continues his lonely digging. One road he follows takes him straight to hell. Satan himself receives him dressed in state-of-the-art cycling shorts and a polo-necked clerical shirt. In his confusion Mr. Flight happens to say: “Oh, God,” a sure way of being thrown out of that establishment. Fashioned like Viking Age ornaments, the minor demons watch with looks that are part sly, part worried.

   After this scare, Flight bumps into a working “colleague”. His escapade has been as miserable a failure as Flight’s. And hey presto, there they both are finally back in a new prison cell. This time Mr. Flight is so delighted with his cell that he intends to prevent any possible plans for flight on the part of his new friend.

   So what can we learn from all this?

   In answer to this direct question, Anne Pedersen replies that the moral of the story is that justice is always done, and that you cannot escape from your actions. But the story is not laboured or particularly moral – it is crafty, amusing and thought - provoking.