Atomic Still Life - Vase with Red Poppies

Description

The red poppy, symbol of the memory of the dead in battle, but also of hope and Freedom. The poppy flower embellishes the meadows and cultivated fields, where it arises spontaneously, with its characteristic intense red color. In my depiction the body nature of the poppy, as well as the color, is absent and reduced to a chiaroscuro shade: the stylistic language is that of the atomic bomb, nature is now truly dead, the detail that refers to the beauty of the flower no longer exists, there remains only a more or less nuanced shadow of what was its corporeality and its peculiar chromatism.

The main strategic nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) has expired and, despite the global health emergency due to covid-19, the race to renew nuclear arsenals is proceeding at full speed, especially for the production of hypersonic weapons or rather missiles for the transport of nuclear warheads. After so many efforts for disarmament and the control of nuclear weapons we are back with the cold war and with all the risks, accidents and possible crises between states of the nuclear club, which derive from it.