The Villagers Decide (Gold)

Having exhausted the village’s sheep, the elders confront the inevitable escalation of their appeasement: from livestock to children, and ultimately to the king’s daughter. Skull motifs on the children and their toys evoke a growing sense of  fatalism, while the scene is rendered with deliberate surrealism befitting the magical yet terrifying world the villagers inhabit.

Two dragons feature: one defeated by St. George (shown in the picture on the wall, to which the young girl points) and another outside the window. The composition borrows its central arrangement from Rembrandt van Rijn’s ‘The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp’ (1632, Mauritshuis, The Hague).

The floating, disjointed perspective heightens the tension of the unmade decision hanging in the air.

The Villagers Decide (Gold)

Laser engraved acrylic, 2023

34 x 36 cm

£150