Oil On Arches Paper, mounted to Dibond
117cm x 46cm
2021
Malus
Malus as a noun means apple, representing knowledge, immortality, fruit of the womb , as an adjective it means bad or evil, something which the mother and baby institutions most definitely were. I chose to be heavy-handed with the symbolism, the Apple barely within her grasp being the child taken from her, the rosary beads binding her, as soother instead of the crucifix and a small resin heart filled with forget-me-not flowers. The Halo is inverted, a black void rather than radiating light , it represents no hope no joy, only Darkness and oppression.
This painting is not an attack on one organized religion but more on any organized institution or group whose aim is to control and use people by means of Fear and subjugation, by abuse both mental and physical. These despicable institutions destroyed countless lives and the atrocities they inflicted upon so many thousands of innocents, some many lives ruined and destroyed all in the name of a Higher power, though in reality merely by power and maleficence.
The pendant holds the phrase Mer De Noms, the Sea of Names, representing the thousands of lives destroyed, representing the thousands of small children and babies found in mass graves within these pious and religious sites, so many women, forced into servitude by families driven by some perceived form of shame at the simple act of young women falling pregnant out of wedlock.