The subject of this painting is a video still from Walt
Disney's "Pinocchio" (1940). In this scene, the protagonist is held
captive in a cage by Stromboli who informs him that he is never going back to
his father and will work for him until the end of his days, and when eventually
too old will make good firewood. In saying these last words, the greedy
puppeteer throws an axe into a worn out anonymous puppet lying in a log box,
and leaves. In the next scene Pinocchio is freed by the Blue Fairy whilst all
the other puppets are left to their fate.
Since first watching this movie, as a child, I was drawn by
the sheer brutality of this scene, and the horrors concealed in Stromboli's
trailer. I think of this scene as a blunt piece of truth about privilege, and
the lack of empathy towards those who are less lucky - which is a
characteristic of humankind that is painfully useful to survive. I chose my
colours to represent and symbolise this duality: a dark, static, heavy blue and
a vivid, violent, toxic pink, equally cold and somehow tacky but useful to make
the image live.
In this case too the pink layer is applied around the
contour lines, letting the blue underneath compose the drawing negatively.
