Bluebells Ringing, Silence Singing 2019

Jana Brike created 'Bluebells Ringing, Silence Singing' with oil on canvas. Immediately, we notice a juxtaposition of life and decay as the soft flesh of the figure contrasts with the hard form of the skull. The painting seems to ask: what are the conditions by which beauty can exist? Brike composes the painting along a diagonal axis. Note how this divides the canvas between the cool blues and grays of the sky and skull, and the warm yellows and pinks of the figure. The skull itself has words scrawled onto it, an inscription that reads: 'The rose is red, the violets blue. Infinity's silent and so are you.' This text, combined with the overgrown vegetation, suggests a meditation on time, memory, and the transient nature of existence. The female figure sits pensively in the foreground, drawing a parallel between the observer and observed. The painting uses a simple structure to destabilize our understanding of beauty and the macabre. This work does not offer fixed meanings, but a contemplation of life, death, and the cyclical nature of time.