A
young red-haired woman is sitting on a case surrounded by empty cans, trash
toys and a screaming monkey.
Dressed
in an orange safety vest and only one boot, she holds an aluminum espresso
maker and a mobile phone in her hands.
Behind
her, a manned rocket rises from a dusky plain into the cloud-shrouded sky.
The
little monkey at the lower left edge of the picture is borrowed from Peter Paul
Rubens' painting “Cimon and Efigenia” and, painted in the manner of the old
masters, combines two very opposite aspects of the composition.
The
classic painting style symbolizes the dominantly western concept of art and the
animal-animal style symbolizes the devaluation of primitive cultures in art.
The
redhead transformed from Botticelli's “Birth of Venus” looks lost in thought
into the upper right corner of the painting.
On
the display of her mobile phone you can see a glowing planet, similar to a
profile picture on a dating app.
This
dystopian allegory symbolically links the current question of social attitudes
in dealing with the devalued art of colonized peoples and the responsibility of
the West towards the entire cultural and material resources of our planet.
