Francis

Dimensions

65 x 50 cm

Date: 08/09/2024

Materials used:

Acrylic and oil, covered with epoxy resin.

Explanation of the painting

We are all prisoners, chained to the performance of physical tasks. Among those who perform this heavy labor, two types can be distinguished: those who are crushed under the weight of the plow they pull, and the damned – those creatures often perceived as useless. The master of these damned sometimes ends up reducing them to a limited intellectual state. Yet, at birth, these beings possessed a higher consciousness. But everything in their environment pushes them to regress to a state of stupidity.

The solution is not in accumulating more wealth to work less, no, because that is ingrained in our genetic code, and everything will bring us back to our state of stupid oxen. And being the master is not being free either. Paradoxically, the higher an individual rises to the rank of master, the more constrained they are by the system.

As for the animals that have become stupid, they move forward with firmly fixed blinkers. They love what their master loves, adopt his desires, even if they are absurd or unattainable. Sometimes, their master longs for alcohol; then, they too desire it, even if they cannot drink it. They are beings broken by life, docile under the lash of the whip, without ever understanding or questioning their suffering.

And yet, I do not know how to break this vicious circle. If they were offered freedom, they would immediately seek a new master. They were born oxen and will remain oxen. No matter the efforts to awaken them, society and their master will always bring them back to their initial condition. Our only consolation is that they do not perceive their servitude. For as long as they do not see their chains, they can believe themselves free and, perhaps, be happy.