Saccharine Temptation

Oil Painting, 5 weeks

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With this final painting, I developed upon the psychoanalytic theme of memories embedded within the realm of unconscious. Inspired by the concept of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden, I explored the unperceived depths of our human subconscious, where our desires and the temptations are a borderline between the moralities of conscience and the eventual succumbing. The profile view of an anonymous identity, where incongruity in gender signifies that universal nature of humankind, is in a peaceful state of rest, positioning the painting’s dreamscape as a concrete realisation of the subconscious world. The connection between the havens and the seas, with their endless space and depths, is a demonstration of the conflicting nature of the unpredictable mind. The only form of connection between the two is the human figure, which represents the threshold of awareness, a borderline connection that tips precariously at any point with the concept of moral or temptation. Green ribbons are a harmonious representation of unity that ensnares our raging conscious into the fluidity of form. The red cherries, the formation of the havens, are similarly hung precariously, degrading towards the ominous seas that lie beneath. The very nature of the fruit is in actual fact an essential necessity for survival, but irony lies in the near proximity at which it is available, and the saccharine sweetness of the fruit makes it more of a desirous treat rather than a plain necessity. Such a notion conflicts and provokes the viewer to choose between the idea of fulfilling desires or fulfilling necessity. Such as the inconsequential nature of a fruit can bring about such conflict shows the complexity of the human mind, which is a consequence of multiple experiences.