The conspiracy within

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on October 18, 2018 at 1:52pm

Curator’s Comments:

The conspiracy within was posted several years ago, but just came up randomly on the site today. The mixed media piece seems to be in large part about sex and gender- the poses of the girl and boy and their corresponding masculine and feminine toys imply cultural conditioning.  Their relatively formal garments and the patterned wallpaper further inject a mood of refinement and domesticity. But something more sinister seems to be at the heart of the work, as the children pick through eggs which appear to contain doll body parts.  The fetus-like form oozing out of the cracked egg in the girl’s casually opened hand may reference abortion, or exertion of genetic control.  Does the dinosaur versus the plane represent a clash in technology and theories of origin and birth, or is a cigar just a cigar, so to speak?  Mine is a rather dark reading into the painting.  Certainly other less menacing interpretations are viable.