Oil and acrylic on canvas — Triptych — 200 × 120 cm
Inspired by my time in Thailand, particularly the red-light districts, this triptych explores a period of exploration, uncertainty and unexpected connection. I found myself drawn to the women working within these streets; not simply as figures of desire, but as people existing behind carefully constructed identities.
Seductive poses invite the viewer closer, while hidden faces deny them intimacy. At the centre, a woman is obscured by a skull, confronting the viewer with the tension between attraction and mortality. The figures are rendered almost like marble statues: beautiful, still and emotionally hardened against the world around them.
Against the warmth of neon pinks, purples, blues and earthy browns, the women become monuments to the emotional contradictions of the night. Desire and distance, vulnerability and armour, loneliness and belonging.