PORTFOLIO > APPETITE

Part of my Appetite series - essentially the series was about self surveillance/censure, propriety and class. Feeding Table is distinct from the others because whereas in most of the images you see women displaying their appetites as a form of rejection, in this painting hidden women are reaching from underneath the tablecloth to try to satiate themselves from the food available. When they reach out to try to satisfy themselves they don't know if they will grasp from their concealment onto something tasty and nourishing or else have nothing to hold. I wanted the site of this 'action' to underscore that sense of either exaggerated utopia or the kind of blank unknown which surrounds the table.
I think it's one of those pictures which suggests multiple readings but in terms of the setting I'd suggest that if read from the barren blank zone at the bottom of the composition upwards it implies the difficult task of reaching for what will nourish you from your place of hiding, the failed attempts which can eventually lead with determination to you being able to finally partake of a feast.

Exhibited in

EYES OF ROXANA HALLS, Gallery 46, London 2022

APPETITE, Hayhill Gallery, London 2014