Green Three Cornered Cupboard, 1996

Green three cornered cupboard, 1996, oil paint, wood, height 91.44cm.

Gifted to a friend who liked it.

The “Interpretation” exhibition had to do with different interpretations of events happening in my family, among friends, and in the national politics immediately around me.

This three-cornered cupboard is painted in the trompe l’oeil style. At the time I was very fascinated with the idea that the reality that we think we see, can be just a lie.We misinterpret what our eyes tell us.

There is no hole in this cupboard whatsoever. The two doors of the cupboard look like they are broken but this is not so, it is just painted to look like it.

A different event is taking place on each shelf.

On one shelf there is a dove on a nest. On another shelf we see a mouse trying to take a drop of water from the shelf above which has a night scenery with a river.

On the left side of the top shelf we can see a lot of jewellery that has been left helter and skelter as if somebody is stirring it. The fact is that this cupboard also has a painting on the top surface that shows a hole with a hand that is actually taking some of the jewellery, stealing it.

There is one more thief stealing jewellery on the side of the cupboard, it is a little bird with a gold chain in its mouth.
At that time of my life I was aware of the realities that were happening around me but no one else interpreted anything the way I did. I became very fascinated with this aspect. It was as if when I said, “this is white” others around me would say “no this is black” and there was not anything much I could do about it.