STAY WITH ME

Stay with me
2022
Oil on canvas
100 x 87 cm

Stay With Me, created by Blase in 2022, is a bold reappropriation of an initially innocent oil of a young girl holding a pigeon in her hands. The misappropriation here is impressively masterful, operating on several levels. Initially, the viewer is attracted by the little girl's adorable appearance, her big eyes and smile, which seem to embody the candour of childhood.  

However, as the image is explored in greater depth, a much darker and more subversive reality is revealed. The artist hijacks the image by introducing a disturbing element: the pigeon's severed head, bloodied, and the child's cheeks stained with blood, with a feather discreetly positioned at the corner of the mouth. The striking contrast between the supposed innocence of the scene and the disturbing detail - the pigeon's decapitated head - shakes our expectations. This artistic deconstruction confronts us with the duality between the charming and the disturbing, between the childlike world and the cruelty of reality. Blase incorporates a surreal dimension through the blood that adorns the young girl's cheeks, evoking the notion of artistic transgression and provocation. This artistic juxtaposition of innocence and the macabre prompts us to reflect on artistic subversion and the decontextualisation of familiar images.