Underneath an approaching storm sits a teacup that holds a hoard of smaller, more delicate teacups. A lovely shade of orange, this larger cup protects its miniature replicas from the rocky earth, while the composition’s upper half shelters the children from a sky threatening to down pour. Just to the right, a small grouping of trees tower over Bak’s bizarre arrangement of drinking vessels. Although the audience might make the assumption that the bit of forest may serve as additional shelter from the approaching storm, an imposter among them threatens the future of the enlarged teacup and section of teapot and all the smaller, delicate cups they safeguard.
With a handle painted in the same fashion as the trees it stands among, a hammer camouflages with its surroundings, prepared to strike and shatter what stands before it. With the looming threat of total destruction hanging over them, the teapot’s spout appears to be facing to the left. As it gazes off into the distance – a stunning landscape becoming increasingly overshadowed by the impending storm – it seems to ponder its mortality. Like a gun pressed to the back of one’s skull awaiting execution, is this hoard of cups aware of their fate?
Does Bak’s stormy sky stand to represent the immediate, all-encompassing darkness that such an execution brings? If not, to what does the teapot’s spout point towards? Could it be Hope?
Lucy McGing (Guest Writer)
BAK a Day, March 9, 2024
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The painter as writer, director and producer as in this painting Of Suspected Origin.
Is it a teapot? A cup? A Pear?
All objects in the visual vocabulary of Bak. Also this structure of his fabrication is also a repository for discarded cups.
All cups become containers for all sorts of stories and journeys. Among the tree stands a hammer in waiting. But waiting for what?
The shelf holding two cups is supported by nails. Do repairs or destruction await?
And what do you suppose the Suspected Origin of this creation is?
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