through a bottle

Manfred Michel
120 x 100 cm,
acrylic on canvas,
2019

In a parched landscape, a sliced plastic bottle protrudes, symbolizing the irony of human impact on the environment. Once a contributor to dehydration, it now paradoxically serves as the sole source keeping the last survivors—two fish and some plants—alive. A clownfish is meant to enhance the humor. A black and white lionfish floats alone in its limited habitat, while the plants are arranged in a formation reminiscent of intricately decorated cutlery. The distinctive appearance of the fish amplifies the image of prepared cutlery. Yet, behind the presumed grace of the lionfish lies a dark truth: it represents a threat that has spread like a parasite in the seas, and its toxicity poses a beautiful, peculiar, yet invisible threat to the depicted fragile ecosystem.

1000 Euro