Beans

1999. Oil on canvas.
380 x 300 mm.
Private collection.

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About this work

This painting explores the medicalization of death and the human body. The beans are very visceral and organic, and relate to the flesh and blood of the human body. This is contrasted to the cold glass, metal, and plastic of the jars they are contained in. The jars are arranged neatly on a glass shelf inside a medicine cabinet. In this work I am commenting on the way people are depersonalized by the medical industry. We are lumped together namelessly and categorized as specimens, not humans. The medical industry seeks to contain the myriad variety of the human condition in a neat and sterile structure. But like the glass in the painting, that structure is fragile and brittle, and could collapse with devastating results.