Candle Dancers of Death

Totenkerzentänzerinnen?? With apologies to Emil Nolde. Not that he was much given to apologising himself. 

I always loved the energy of Nolde’s candle dancers. So when I wanted a dance of Death with a frenetic vibe, his painting/woodcut seemed the natural source. 

Last year when I began bringing Uncle Death into my work, especially the Trigger Warning series, I approached the subject with a sense of sadness. Almost an especial sadness for all those deaths overshadowed by the coronavirus hysteria, But now, I am more frightened of the world. Not frightened of disease, or death. More the collective madness that has overtaken us. An enthusiasm with sweeping everything away. It reminds me of the enthusiasm with which the youth of Europe marched off to war in 1914. 

So this. Not Uncle Death. More the Death Sisters, cutting abstract shapes before a miniature model of Hell.