Rotting

By Autumn Bannon

Caption Of Artwork: Rotting is a self-portrait diptych that conveys feelings of numbness and exhaustion. I wanted to show these feelings throughout the day, having the first piece take place in the morning and the second piece in the night. For the first piece, I wanted to convey feeling unpresent in an action that’s daily and repetitive. A chaotic representation of getting ready that explores the constant pressure to perform. My expression remains lifeless showing absence of thought, and an emotional detachment masked by pigment and polish. I wanted to keep a vibrant yellow color and different values of green strong throughout the piece to give the painting a sickening, unsettling mood.

I had two sources of creative reference when I thought of the imagery for the second piece. I was inspired by the concept of rotting corpses, specifically when insects crawl over lifeless bodies. I wanted to show internal decay, rotting but physically alive. Furthermore, the idea of the roaches also came from personal brainstorming. One of my greatest fears is roaches, so I used the idea of being too tired and listless to get the roaches off of me to truly display the extreme levels of exhaustion. I attempted to keep my expression neutral but tired, and have my eyes not focused on anything, not having any reaction to the bugs. I collaged an array of old to-do lists I collected from the past year into the table to show the overwhelming amount of tasks draining the life out of me. Overall, I wanted the diptych to strike attention from the disturbing visuals and grotesque colors to simply say I’m tired.