Painted stories > Faculty of Wonder

Gossip Martini explores the darker aspects of human nature, particularly the pleasure people take in another person’s misfortune. This kind of cruelty often unfolds around a table, while people eat and drink. I see gossip as a form of violence that is as brutal as consuming another human being. In the painting, two figures sit together, eating and drinking while gossiping. As they speak about someone else, the food and drink in their mouths transform into that person’s flesh and blood. A severed head floats inside a large martini glass, suspended in tears and blood, shared casually between the couple. What appears social and refined becomes an act of quiet brutality.