Inferno

This painting is part of a series entitled: "Rats: the shadows within the silence".

In this series of artworks, I embark on a journey inside the darkest depths of myself to face the rats that inhabit my mind feeding themselves on my raw fear, anger, grief and shame. And, in sch a way, maybe, uncovering some universal truth the viewer can relate to, since RATS are the most common pests that live as shadows in everybody's home, voraciously munching the walls of our conscience both as individuals and a society. And when they finished raveging that, they're already so big, strong and more hungry than ever that it's quite impossible to keep denying their existence. They are there, in front of you, scary and ravenous amid the ashes of the life they have concurred to annihilate. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The idea for this painting was born watching the news about the migrant crisis going on in the ice-cold forests at the Bielorussian-Poland border where asylum seekers were freezing to death, pushed back and ignored by our christian-rooted Europe that, just one month later, will mercifully welcome familiies of Ukrainian refugees.

So, the initial idea was it to be the portrayal of our guilt as Europeans towards the popoulations of these developing Countries we ruthlessly preyed upon and scavenged to build up our current wealth, without ever expecting any compensation to give them back for all we keep stealing them. 

Then the war in Ukraina broke out and suddenly, all became so smokey in my mind. Nothing remained of the child corpse who was incinerated on the funeral pyre. Just the eyes slightly stand out surrounded by the whirls of smoke. 

In the meanwhile, the woman - disfigured as the canvas had been as an impulsive outburst of their creator  - wordlessly stares at the viewer with bloodstained eyes, as our hands are too.