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The Dance of Death

2017 - 2018

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The creating of the series started when I heard the waltz written by Anthony Hopkins

Haunted

Black Swan

Fire & Blood

80 x 130 cm
Oil on Canvas
2018
80 x 130 cm
Oil on Canvas
2017
80 x 130 cm
Oil on Canvas
2018
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The true confronting to fear begins at the acceptance of death
By the greatness of love

Embrace

110 x 130 cm
Oil on Canvas
2017

Monody

80 x 130 cm
Acrylic on Canvas
2018
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The series  was inspired by the Waltz written by Sir. Anthony Hopkins, And The Waltz Goes On. I started this series with a painting named Embrace. It shows a fervent dance of a young woman in a red dress which shaped like a rose and a figure of death. They dance in embrace, as love and fear intertwined. It opened the series based on the thoughts: the true confronting to fear begins at the acceptance of death, by the greatness of love.  

 

"In this series, the figure of death is the origin of human fear in general. And dancing with death represents me accepting and confronting my fear. The paintings reveal the choice I've made. To live. When I try to define the meaning of life I found the word happiness. And I know the only way to find it is through the energy of love. The confronting of fear, not to waste away escaping from it. To embrace fear completely, to come toe balance and a new beginning. " -- 2018

The whole series was painted within the same tone: black and red. Elements that I often include in my artworks such as Gypsy dancing and red roses appeared a lot in this series. I think they are the first symbolistic objects that pop into my mind every time when I dive into the emotions of love and freedom. 

 

Monody is quite exceptional among my paintings. It wasn't originally planed in the series. I don't usually work with acrylic and also the style of the painting is quite different from the rest of the series. It was an attempt. 

 

In the spring of 2018 I was having fun introducing the various ways of using acrylic paints to my young students who frequently visited my studio, so I had plenty of paints lying around. We always had music with us during our classes. Those weeks, after the death of Avicii, we were listening to a lot of electric music and that was when a kid introduced me to this song  by TheFatRat, which made me to decide right away to produce this painting.

I spent 4.5 hours on it. By the end I thought this painting should be at the end of this series. It appeared to me that it is a farewell to the past, it is the end of a struggle, a struggle leading toward the facing of death. At the end of it, we come to this gate, through it, a real life begins. Here is where we find ourselves, within the meaning of humanity, within the greatness of love, we step into that gate, dancing, singing a Monody to those we have left behind, to a yesterday that has gone decay.

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Behind The Scene

© 2023 by Ali B. Lu

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