Girl with a Pearl Earring AKA Dolphin got My Baby – 2019

Oil on canvas. H152 x W152 cm

Red herrings, T bones and burlesque. A squatting female figure seen from behind hints at a voyeuristic viewing in a carnival-spotlight setting. The pearl earring has been appropriated (copied) from Vermeer’s masterpiece. It’s relation to the narrative of the painting is obscure and enigmatic. The woman’s torso is covered in an organic patination bovine-like (Bos taurus ) sanguine colour. Using a glazing technique, there is a fugitive suggestion of the skeleton below, just visible. The spine is a geometric repeat-pattern associated with the traditional Zulu shield. The organic is offset and counterbalanced by the geometric. To the left, a luminescent blue dolphin hovers, caught and strapped-up hanging from a meat hook, in turn, has a baby human arm protruding from its mouth. Snared, the makestic prey is itself part of the food chain of survival.

Combining South African iconography with a reference to an Australian iconic historic occurrence, a well- documented travesty of justice, sits very comfortably, with this immigrant artist.

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