“The Caregiver”

50 × 50 cm (19.7 × 19.7 in)

Acrylic on canvas

The Caregiver gives everything. She wants to help everyone, hold everyone and fix everyone, until there is nothing left of her to give. Her shadow is martyrdom: the quiet way she lets herself be used, and the scream she swallows to keep the peace. Here, that scream finally breaks loose. On the right is a screaming Barbie, the picture-perfect ideal sold to young girls for generations, an impossible body that exploits the very people who love her. On the left, peeling away from her, is the artist herself, raw and unfinished. Inspired by Francis Bacon's screaming Pope, the two faces dissolve into a single cry: the sound of someone who has given too much, and is only now realising it.

£1,500