This work speaks of endurance against oppression. In an age that should herald women’s emancipation, shadows rise, pulling us backward into a new tide of male sexism. The “incel” creed seeks to fracture what women have built and what they dream for tomorrow. Yet, within this storm, their resilience shines; unyielding, defiant, and luminous, guarding a hard won ground while reaching ever forward toward the promise of true equality.
Held Beneath Dying Eyes is a monumental 3D digital artwork that reimagines the intensity and theatricality of the Baroque period through a contemporary lens. Printed in large format at 250 × 167 cm, the work seeks to envelop the viewer, not only through its scale but through its emotional resonance and symbolic depth.
The composition pays homage to Georges de La Tour’s Magdalene with the Smoking Flame, a painting celebrated for its chiaroscuro and contemplative atmosphere. In this reinterpretation, the grandeur and drama of the seventeenth century are revived and transposed into the present day, where questions of identity, resilience, and empowerment take center stage. The resulting image speaks both to art history and to our current cultural moment.
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The composition pays homage to Georges de La Tour’s Magdalene with the Smoking Flame, a painting celebrated for its chiaroscuro and contemplative atmosphere. In this reinterpretation, the grandeur and drama of the seventeenth century are revived and transposed into the present day, where questions of identity, resilience, and empowerment take center stage. The resulting image speaks both to art history and to our current cultural moment.
Entirely free from AI intervention, the piece affirms the value of digital craft and human intention in a rapidly shifting technological landscape. The figures were sculpted and modeled in Daz3D, while garments were designed and simulated in Marvelous Designer, imbuing the characters with a distinctly contemporary sense of fashion. These sartorial choices serve as a bridge between past and present, linking the allegorical weight of Baroque iconography with modern narratives of women’s empowerment.
Objects and surrounding elements were meticulously constructed in Cinema4D, then composed and rendered with the aid of Substance Painter and Octane, ensuring both technical precision and atmospheric richness. The layered process of modeling, texturing, and rendering reflects a commitment to craftsmanship and detail that echoes the material devotion of traditional oil painting.
They call Earth Mother
Yet make women suffer.
So called protectors seem enlightened,
But feel so easily threatened.
Bearing Adam’s sin
Did Eve truly disobey?
Possession and corruption
They only seek to downplay.
A woman’s burden,
Stung by poison,
Falling through pain,
Yet chosen to brighten.
The radiance of life
Shines upon all.
None must ignore
Nor compromise her uprise.
Yet make women suffer.
So called protectors seem enlightened,
But feel so easily threatened.
Bearing Adam’s sin
Did Eve truly disobey?
Possession and corruption
They only seek to downplay.
A woman’s burden,
Stung by poison,
Falling through pain,
Yet chosen to brighten.
The radiance of life
Shines upon all.
None must ignore
Nor compromise her uprise.
Embedded within the work is the poem They Call Earth Mother, a text written to heighten the artwork’s emotional tenor. The poem articulates themes of pain, endurance, and rising strength, illuminating the figures with a poetic voice that resonates beyond the visual surface. While included as an annex in the accompanying publication, its presence within the artwork itself serves as a subtle but vital undercurrent.
Held Beneath Dying Eyes ultimately operates at the intersection of past and present, painting and digital media, fragility and empowerment. It challenges the viewer to consider how historical modes of representation can be reactivated today, not as mere quotation, but as a living dialogue with themes that remain urgent and universal.
Held Beneath Dying Eyes ultimately operates at the intersection of past and present, painting and digital media, fragility and empowerment. It challenges the viewer to consider how historical modes of representation can be reactivated today, not as mere quotation, but as a living dialogue with themes that remain urgent and universal.
EXHIBITION
