In Midnight Reflection at Ommaney Road (2024), the woman sits in a Victorian bay room which has been framed in the room symmetrically against the windows in the centre. Her face does not show any emotion as she glares at us calmly yet cold. There are five cards in front of her across the green cloth- some of these cards are not recognisable yet some are. We are left uncertain about what is happening with these cards thus adding an ominous air to the atmosphere of the painting.
Everything in the room is neatly in control and seems to be a ritual while the silence within the painting could allude that the figure is perhaps a medium or something more eerie.
The Archbishop (2024) is still and creates an atmosphere of strangeness and silence like the previous work. The room is shallow and cornered and the lighting within the room is soft yet liminal- along with the figure being menacing. The figure is wearing a cultic ceremonial garment which shrouds the figure except for its head- which is a sheep yet the posture is human. Behind the figure is its shadow; however, the shadow is hooded while the figure is not suggesting that something after this silence will happen yet it is not explained and the viewer must wonder what is beyond this scene. Perhaps it is simply a costume, or perhaps it could be a scene of horror?
There is no action happening within the painting; it simply continues to feel claustrophobic yet there is a large space. We are thus drawn to create the narrative ourselves within this ritualised space. The body itself is ritualised too as it is restrained and masked making the horror linger within the space. The head could be a symbol of a form of heresy or a ritual as the title suggests religious authority. Perhaps the shadow on the wall could be a body double- which is watching us and the figure?
The End of Masculinity (2023) appears as though it’s a cadaver on a slab that is covered by a surgical-looking robe. The perspective takes us to an angle looking downwards onto the figure as though we are witnessing its end. This is furthered as the scene looks as though it is a morgue which thus, as the title suggests, explores the death (or end) of masculinity. Furthermore, the visual similarity to Mantegna’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ is quite unmistakable but while Mantegna’s figure is mourned for as a divine and sacrificial figure – the body in The End of Masculinity is anonymous and as though it is a surgical body.
The palette is monochromatic and thus has been stripped of all colour and any warmth that the body would perhaps had. Hence- we are left with an emotionless husk of a body. We are thus reckoned with the figure as an object rather than a person- dissecting it further there are simply two states: body – corpse: male – post-masculinity. The body is there but its soul is gone; it has escaped or has rotted away. However, the way that the figure is placed onto the slab and the lack of any emotion (mournful or triumphant) suggests that we are simply just observing the figure’s death – it is an observation not dramatised.
Seated Woman with Nightdress (2024) is an observation of a woman wearing a nightdress in a very intimate setting. However, the hands are folding into her- which suggests restraint and tension creating silence and an air of dissatisfaction with the self. The garment is luxurious with detailed embroidery- however, it is creased and folds. It’s as though it is a second skin- something that hides the self. From the perspective angle; we are watching the figure but as though we are experiencing the same anxiety that the figure is. The background seems to trap the figure in this life as though they are stuck within the cycle of dissatisfaction and perhaps yearning for happiness.