Ode to the Aristocracy

ODE TO THE ARISTOCRACY Acrylic on Canvas | 36" × 36"

She is riding a bear. She finds nothing unusual about this.

Ode to the Aristocracy is a painting about a very specific kind of entitlement — the kind that is so complete, so thoroughly bred into the bone, that mounting a bear in a pink ballgown in what appears to be a flooded ballroom seems not merely acceptable but entirely natural. The bear is grey and massive and rendered with the careful attention of something that was once alive and powerful and has been reduced, by the particular alchemy of privilege, to furniture. The woman sits upon it with the composed, slightly cadaverous dignity of someone who has never once questioned whether she has the right.

The background erupts around them in hot pink, teal, crimson and white — paint dripping, orbs of light floating, the whole surface alive with a gestural energy that the figures themselves completely refuse to acknowledge. The world is falling apart in colour behind them. They have not noticed. They will not notice.

This is the companion piece to Bear Chair — the same meditation on taxidermy, on dominion, on the perverse beauty of the relationship between power and the natural world — but where Bear Chair is confrontational and raw, Ode to the Aristocracy is darkly comic. The absurdity is the point. The ballgown is the point. The complete composure in the face of the completely preposterous is the point.

An ode. Of sorts. To the people who have always ridden the bear and called it civilisation.

📦 Shipping & Details

• 36" × 36" original acrylic on canvas
• Please contact us to discuss shipping options
• Certificate of authenticity included

One original. No reproductions. She finds nothing unusual about this.