ripe (2024)

At first glance, this portrait seems to reflect a classical pastoral scene: a woman sits in the fields, pondering at the fruit held in her hand. The pathetic fallacy of the darkened skies and embroidered flies upon her body seem to suggest otherwise, however. According to society, she is "ripe" for the picking - fertile, but not for much longer. Soon her body will no longer be deemed desirable, as with the fruit which has started to rot in the heat. 

This piece is a commentary on the societal value assigned to women's bodies based on age and fertility, a misogynistic concept especially prevalent in East Asian culture. Like fruit, the woman is degraded to a consumable resource, an object without its own will. Parents are forcing their single daughters into marriage purely based on fear that they will be unwanted "past their prime", at the risk of their wellbeing. The subject is thus gazing at a reflection of herself in the eyes of society, lamenting her eventual fate.

I enjoyed playing around with colour, texture, and the addition of embroidery with this piece. As with other works, my black acrylic sketch shows through at the bottom of the canvas, carefully dry-brushed with oil colours on top to create a look similar to ink.