Since P.T. Selbit sawed a woman in half, it has been difficult to count whether this classical trick has had more variants or more references in cartoons. Popov is exceptional in his ease concerning combination of a few spheres of reality. When we look at Illusionist, we might be less supposed to think about the matters the subject itself seems to be designed – so interesting for Popov area of male-female relations. About searching for physical thrill of sensation, and a naive dream of getting to the “inside” of the other person, the other sex. About absurd ways of putting it into an action, and post-coital melancholy. About nonsense of a chain of conquests which eventually will turn to be the series of fading away, almost identical memories. All these, though actually present somewhere, leave space for the issues tightly connected with the matter, at least according to psychoanalysts. Self-proclaimed demiurges and homebred reformers… Their childish eager to treat various illusions literally and seriously. Their naive astonishment, not to call it the state of being dumb-struck, that the easiest solution does not work, and the thoughtlessly plucked and torn reality is not going to be knitted back easily. To put it short, a drama of alienated power. These associations come to mind even in case when allusions to what is the most up-dated, have slipped by. The surprisingly familiar, elongated magician’s face – what a definite pretext for further reflection – and even more puzzling, the crooked aureole of stars on his magical hat which is so cleverly composed into the entourage that it becomes almost invisible. As it is the easiest way to smuggle the sharpest satire under cover of an illusory aesthetic form.
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