The Mind Recedes the Blood is Wise the Soundless Mouth is Open

To make this painting, two digital 3D models were created in the likeness of myself and my father. I then had the 3D models of our faces printed. I collaged the cut-out print onto a larger canvas and then painted the entire work in oil.

I’ve been interested in landfills as a metaphor for collective memory and buried secrets. For me, the landfill of butchered cows represents the Land of Vision, where God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in the book of Genesis.

I’ve been thinking about the transmission of power through family, or more specifically, from father to son, and how this transmission of power is, in a way, a force of nature, there waiting for its eventual practitioners.

I’ve intentionally obscured and imbricated layers of meaning here. It has a homoerotic aspect to it, which surprises even me. This is not intended to be a literal read, but there is something connected in the history of my sexuality and that of my father’s. There are many ways to read the power struggle implied in the picture.