In Memory of the Fallen

Started in 2021 as a simple sketch in a dummy book. It was one of those fleeting ideas you get while sitting on the toilet with no way to write it down. No, I don’t take my phone to the toilet. Okay… maybe in my pocket.

In 2022, a panel was brought in as a try-out for the first piece. Different shades of grey and colour tones were tested. Once the direction became clear, the panel was carefully sanded, fully coated in grey, and the first sketch lines appeared on the surface.

Slowly, my first image began to grow. Strategically and in layers, Michael rendered me further and further into existence. I started to exist within this physical world and no longer only inside Michael’s mind. I was pulled into this dimension.

The process moved slowly, and by 2023 I felt complete, but not yet finished. Complete enough to bring in brothers and sisters for the first panel. These too received their own beautiful underlayers. The second panel was gradually taken over to connect with the first image and form one continuous drawing.

Soon after, everything fell silent.

The panels remained untouched for years, surviving multiple moves, while the focus slowly shifted towards Misses Devana…

To be continued.

With the arrival of the second panel came more story and more layers. As a viewer, you should now begin to recognise more. With an arm and the first indication of two heads, I could feel myself continuing to grow. At 1 metre 20, I was starting to become quite a serious child.

Michael spent a long time working on the arm. We moved from a healthy arm to one that became just slightly twisted. I am not human, but from what I have learned about anatomy, it feels deeply uncomfortable and painful. The rotation now beginning to form in relation to the left head creates the feeling that something is just slightly wrong.

A dead, lifeless stare looks back at you. Death has clearly settled in for quite some time already. Hanging between the roots, interrupted only by the presence of a leaf. As a counterbalance to the discomfort, a sense of hope appeared with the arrival of a rose.

The second face is just as entangled and suffocated as the first. At the same time, it becomes clearer that these are not random people, but idealised beauties — true nymphs of their time — crushed by Mother Nature as a correction towards humanity.

A third family member was now introduced. Once again, a careful transition was created between panel two and panel three. For a brief moment, the three of us stood there posing for Michael, until the idea emerged to hang the panels like pieces of dead flesh inside a bloody butcher’s shop.

To be continued…