Recanting old myths.
Embracing new fantasies.
By Nyadzombe Nyampenza
There is no certain way of summing up Helen Teede’s painting, Little Death. The artist leaves the audience hanging in suspense. Her work provokes the viewer with multiple possibilities.
The diminishing title of the painting makes a mockery of death. It undermines the dreadful phenomenon. A naked female body lies in a seductive posture. Her neck is arched in a way that can signal both pain and pleasure. She could be dead or alive. Raw flesh tones are rendered in thick brush strokes. The subject is emotionally charged like a Francis Bacon portrait.
The title of the painting has certain association to the expression ‘’La petite mort’’. Sexual innuendo from the French saying finds resonance in the erotic reclining figure. Post orgasmic sensation is curiously suggested with a body in solitude. It is as if the partner was redacted in a defiant act of autonomy.
Helen’s piece can be seen as a site for demythologizing the concept of death and its association to darkness. Death and sex are merged in a way that redefines the perception of both. The intense black dominating the frame is striped of mournful and frightful connotations. Black becomes an inviting symbol for transcendence.
