Caroline Allen

Tecnica: Mixed media on paper

Dimensione: 38 x 53 cm

Anno: 2025

Descrizione: Death represents endings. Here that traditional meaning is almost mocked, and includes a child, the raised finger a verdict. I think this piece poses questions rather than answers them:

What are we showing our children in this current climate of death — war, eco-uncertainty, police brutality?
Is the direction we’re heading leading only to death?
Do we celebrate that, as in the Day of the Dead?
What are we teaching our children about death?

A grinning skeleton fills most of the frame against a near-black ground, its skull painted with a red circle and scattered dots. The eyes are wide, almost gleeful. One bony arm rises straight up, middle finger extended, the word “upbringing” running down the length of it in pale letters. The figure wears a striped, red robe with a black sash, scattered with pale blue circles. A second, smaller skeletal figure sits at the hip, wrapped in the same red and blue pattern.