She Picked Up on the Second Ring, 2019.
This work seeks to visually translate the lyricism of Dante’s Inferno while taking inspiration from Botticelli’s illustrations. Two sinners, Francesca and Paolo, are punished in the second ring of Hell for their lust, damned together for eternity. I created a series of overlapping contour drawings of the couple embracing, and interspersed these sheets with other images of romance and togetherness, buried over the ages: drawings of hands intertwined, figures intertwined. I wanted these images to be hidden, unseen from the surface but simmering underneath as the couple was whisked away. The layered images are staggered to show the passage of time; when looking through them altogether one can view the sedimentation of lust, but the individual sheets can be pulled back to reveal the love at core.