~ENVOI~
 

FLOW

~ENVOI~

Acrylic on canvas 
150 x 170 cm 

Year of completion: April 2020


EUR 2,500 

DESCRIPTION/NOTES

ENVOI - Ballade's end; a sinking song without words.
 

We are nearing our fading. Despite our clever imitations, we are not spared the force-feeding of their reality. We begin to realize that in imitation, we have not succeeded in loosening their grasp; instead, we feel their fingers even tighter around our throats. Our briefly opened minds failed to understand their motive force; In rules and guidelines, limitations and willful ignorance it was spelled out, letter-for-letter. Everyone else also needed their ideological pyramids built, but until the end we didn’t realize they intended to achieve this through subversion. Much like any Pharaoh, they weren’t going to get far without slave labor. In imitation we purchased our chains, and realizing this utter defeat we locked away our newly-formed self. Deflated we submit, resigning to this course of inhumanity.  

A melancholic barcarolle filled our hearts, a melody made of last gasps and withering tears, long sung by our gondolier society, rowing endlessly an obscure, deprecating spiral. Perhaps we’d have words, if only we could breathe. Fade to black.

This painting was created long before I understood what I really saw in those blue, encircling waves. How easy it would be to let go of such pressures as “fighting back” or “seeking meaning,” and recline in the embrace of the endlessly melancholy yet comforting depths of society. Inside, I went to sleep for a while, waiting for the tide to wash me onto a new shore.