The second asset in the THANATOLOGY cycle performs a merciless dissection of the most resilient cultural construct - the myth of absolute innocence and fairy-tale escapism. The canvas documents not the "fall down the rabbit hole" as a metaphor for curiosity, but the physiological collision with the bottom.
The visual architecture of the work rests upon evidence of bodily trauma. The bloodied knees revealing visceral red are clinical findings of the brutal gravity of the fall. The iconic figure is stripped of her fairy-tale immunity yet categorically rejects the status of a victim. The posture is deconstructed, emptied of social propriety, while the heavy, almost lethargic gaze transforms exhaustion into arrogance.
Oil on canvas, 80 x 100 cmWork in Process
After 5 hours working on the painting
After 10 hours of working
Untitled II (Hypnotica)
She is not a lost girl in a strange world; she is a subject who has just survived the collapse of her own myth and attained absolute, cynical clarity. As with the genesis asset, all sentimentality has been surgically amputated. The work does not mourn the end of childhood; it asserts the death of illusion as the sole condition for achieving true autonomy.