Original Artwork | Oil & Acrylic on Canvas | H 1215mm x W 1825mm
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Featured Exhibitions:
Under 30s Eat Free (2025 - Solo Exhibition)
 
About the Artwork:
 "Stay at home as long as you like so you can save more money."
 
A good principle kindly offered by my parents against a long-emerging heinous financial climate the under thirties find themselves navigating. While grateful for the dwellings, the rural location of my family home came with substantial opportunity costs, one of which was an early romantic relationship.
 
First love is passionate, but ultimately inexperienced and anxious. My first love and I perceived ourselves to be pedestalled as one of our hometown’s power couples, wherein we openly prided ourselves on having never fought or argued with one another. However, as we came upon nearly two years of dating, our streak of bliss put pressure on the relationship to continue this trend or risk jeopardising our social perception as a perfect pair. Simultaneously, our living within our parents’ homes presented limited opportunities for alone time, sexual expression and exploration; we felt muted and secretive about our intimacy, adding more heat to a pressure cooker of problems.
 
Slow and gradual, the relationship fractured with her seeking intimacy outside of the relationship and me engaging with pornography.
 
This painting depicts a couple in the darkness of a bedroom; a woman lies with her back to her mate, a panda who is leaving their bed to seemingly address a menial problem (blowing his nose) but is actually about to engage in a secretive act of adultery, represented by the seductive figure reaching out underneath the bed. A mother panda stands in the doorway about to turn on the lights, exposing a dysfunctional relationship.