Chien pique par un serpent - Dog bitten by a snake (While you were sleeping Series)

"The work itself is inspired by the sculpture: Femme piqué par un serpent by Auguste Clésinger’s 1847, a suggestive sculpture of a woman writhing in pain from a snake bite.

I used the sculpture as inspiration for a painting in which some of my characters and language depict a similar scene, but with a sausage dog lying on a bed of flowers. I used the concept of victims before in a broader sense, victims of fashion, the time we live in , social media etc.

Here the character is surrounded by other elements, but there seems to only be engagement from the hand reaching into the painting with a flower, "a divine intervention", deus ex machina. A rare occasion in my work where there is a "human' connection in the work.

The history and story around Auguste Clésinger, his model/muze and the client that commissioned the work is what triggered my interest at first. It is in its medium quite advanced and unusual and in my opinion often underappreciated.

Kehinde Wiley also drew inspiration from this same sculpture in 2008, although he placed it in a different new political context, completely different from my intentions in my own interpretation."

Image Credit: The Artist & Real Happy Pictures.