Sarah Muirhead
Chance or Choice, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
110 x 90 cm
43.3 x 35.4 in
43.3 x 35.4 in
'Fate is decided by choice and chance. We personify fate to make sense of misfortune or perhaps to alleviate crushing guilt when we get things wrong. In this instance she...
"Fate is decided by choice and chance. We personify fate to make sense of misfortune or perhaps to alleviate crushing guilt when we get things wrong. In this instance she is very much in control. Clothed while the men are nude and vulnerable. She is playful, letting the bottle decide like a game and hinting at potential sexual outcome. She isn’t sympathetic - the broken eggs were not handled delicately, the sweets alluding to temptations that pull us off track. The guardian ornaments hover over the scene, phallic good luck charms. The fiction of this story is evident in the deliberately flat background - like a backdrop in a play and the unnatural perspective."