PAINTING
ROBERT RICOV
(AUSTRALIA)
 
DETAILS
Title: Morte, mortadella, ratastic regret, chemotherapy cat and the bitter-sweet fruits of consumption
Giclée print on canvas
(1/9) Limited editionç
Hand signed by the artist
61 x 76 cm
2024
 
DESCRIPTION
A table has been set. A delectable assortment of cheeses, fruits, mortadella, and all manner of sweet meats. A feast for the eyes as well as the mouth, enriched upon a surface of plush blue and white fabrics. But alas, it was not to be. The guests—a cast of society’s who’s who—never did manage to attend. Their regrets were sent, with excuses of some such or the other. How quickly rumours travel in this city! How quickly one loses one’s good reputation for its opposite replacement! The master of the house now sits at the table alone, reading the letters of regret, the excuses. In a sudden rage he pulls at the table cloth, casting the feast upon the floor before storming out of the room. But the goods do not go to waste. Indeed, the spirits of the house have found an excuse to gather, to make merry, make mischief, or make melancholy, or make as they wish. It matters not, for the wine at last flows, and they can at last compare tragedies together at the table of torment. The master of the house is a hunter, and the ghosts of a room full of taxidermy trophies descend upon the feast. A monkey, syringe in hand, poison loaded, injects it into a hairless cat. It laments with a hairless mouse. They should be enemies, but what they have in common is more than skin deep. The cherub is angry, for he does not like to see food wasted.