Me and the Black Dog
Me and the Black Dog (MATBD) is a 14-minute hand-drawn collaborative animation by Neeta Madahar and Kate Owens. It depicts the interactions of a female protagonist and a giant black dog and was commissioned by FACT (Foundation for Arts and Creative Technology), Liverpool, UK and Arts Council England for the exhibition Group Therapy: Mental Distress in a Digital Age at FACT in 2015.
Within British folklore, numerous references to the ‘black dog’ as a metaphor for dark, malevolent forces exist. For example, a legend dating back to Viking times describes Black Shuck, a ghostly dog, roaming the East Anglian countryside. More recently, the ‘black dog’ has come to symbolise darker aspects of the human psyche. Winston Churchill called his depression his ‘black dog’ and musicians Nick Drake and the Manic Street Preachers have associated the ‘black dog’ with black moods in their songs.
MATBD uses these negative connotations as its foundation. Through a playful, non-narrative and fragmentary approach, it explores the unruly, dark element in one’s personality as something not necessarily to be feared or eradicated. Rather, when considered as an intrinsic part of what makes one ‘who they are’ it takes on a more ambiguous interpretation.
The dog portrayed in MATBD is a male Newfoundland; a large, powerful animal, whose manner can shift quickly from benign to overwhelmingly brutish. It is also an abject beast constantly shedding great volumes of hair and saliva.
The animation has an aesthetic similar to the 1970s British TV cartoons 'Roobarb and Custard' where outlines ‘wobble’ from frame to frame; the nebulous, ill-defined nature of the borders deliberately evoking uncertainty. The voiceover maintains this elusiveness by avoiding a narrative structure with a typical ‘beginning, middle and end,’ and through an interweaving of fact and fiction. Sometimes, grammar breaks down and repetition, rhyme and other wordplays ensue.