This is a painting devoted to artist's mother and reflecting her death.

In the description of the painting artist explains the importance of mother-figure for him, how his mother "remained an unsolved mystery" and how different personalities of her intersect and compete in his mind, so he cannot understand who she used to be (Invoker, 2021). Firstly, this work relates to Barthes' reflection upon his own mother's death, life and relations in Camera Lucida (1981). Secondly, it's interesting how the artist shows multiply personalities of his mother and her death as fading/disintegrating in and with the same trope of repetition of the figure in different states; how he creates a sense of photograph inside the canvas with white margins, which he immediately breaks with red dress pattern on the left. Small detail of an oval around the right disappearing white figure, reminds or directly mimics an oval of the gravestone photographs, pointing at the death one more time.

This work touches such broader themes as death and memorial practices.

#photography #painting #memory #mother #personalities