A boisterous, golden frame surrounded the painting, central on a grand wall that spanned the width of the magnificent room. The square painting stood at the height of two people, dominating the meandering guests of the gallery. Some guests stood before it for a few moments, taking in its awful grandeur, then proceeded to other paintings in the gallery, while most gave it only a glance while walking past. Among them, only one, a woman, remained fixed for longer than a minute, inspecting the painting with a tilted head. 

A man entered the room. He saw the woman standing there, beautiful in her black jacket, trousers and heeled boots, her dark hair bobbed just above her shoulders. With a patient step, he set out towards her.

He arrived at her side, matching her posture to watch the painting. She noticed that a man had arrived, but didn’t turn to look at him. The man looked around him.

‘How are two strangers ever expected to bump into each other in a room this big?’ he said.

Recognising the voice, the woman looked at him with a smile.

‘Hello, Tae,’ she said.

‘Hello, Ina,’ he answered.

The two looked at one another for a moment in silence, then looked back at the painting.

‘It’s yours?’ asked Tae.

‘Yeah,’ answered Ina.

Tae’s eyes fell to the bottom of the monstrous frame, where the name of the painting was engraved.

‘Thy God, ADONES,’ he read. He looked at his friend. ‘You know that’s not how it’s spelt, right?’

Ina smiled.

‘It’s a mix between Adonis and Ares,’ she explained, not looking away from the painting.

‘Ah,’ understood Tae, who began to look at the painting with more scrutiny.

The expansive oil on canvas depicted a male, muscular figure, standing triumphant on the left of the image. He had one hand raised in the air as he stood atop the body of another man, his right foot pressing down on the man’s head. On the right there was an army of naked men, bowing to him on their knees. Each of them appeared withered and feeble, with a small boulder on the back of their necks, appearing too heavy to be lifted by their weakened bodies. The scenery behind them was divided in two: on the left, where ADONES stood, there were lush greens and hills of abounding beauty; on the right, the army of men knelt on harsh burning coals and scorched soil. The sky was divided similarly: on the left, it was cloudless and filled with the glorious sun; on the right, it was dismal and grey, burdened by smog.

Tae looked at the painting for a while, inspecting its minutiae closer. After some time, he noticed that some of the greens of the lush paradise weren’t as they initially appeared. Amidst their apparent harmony, there were broken branches, torn leaves and stripped earth. There were speckles of discord scattered in the paradise, only visible upon closer inspection. As Tae scanned the ground for more sunken blades, his eyes stopped on the face of the fallen man. Unsure whether his eyes deceived him, he glanced at the figure of ADONES above him, then back down. His initial impression was correct: the face of the slain and the triumphant were one and the same.

‘I like it,’ said Tae. ‘What do the rocks on their necks mean?’

‘They’re a choice,’ explained Ina, ‘the men choose to try lifting the rocks to stand upright, when all they have to do is let the rock fall, and they will be able to walk ahead.’

‘And why don’t they?’ asked Tae.

But Ina had no answer for him, getting lost in her thoughts.

The two friends left the gallery in the evening and made their way back to their hotel suite. The suite was sectioned into two rooms, one for each of them. Before going to bed, Tae knocked on Ina’s door.

‘Come in,’ she said.

Tae walked inside and found Ina lying in bed. She was already under the covers, her hair flattened from the shower, illuminated only by the bedside lamp. She was reading an art magazine, one that frequently featured her own paintings. She put it down momentarily when her friend walked in.

‘I came to say goodnight,’ said Tae.

‘Goodnight,’ said Ina with a smile.

She brought the magazine up again to return to reading. Tae lingered in the door for a few seconds.

‘You know, I meant to ask you,’ he said. 

Ina put the magazine back down.

‘When I see you look at your own paintings, you look like you’re lost in them. Like you’re searching for something within them, and that always confuses me. How can you be searching for something in a place you made? Don’t you already know what’s in the paintings?’

Ina looked away from him for a second, thinking about his question.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, looking back at him. ‘I don’t think I make all of them. Just parts. I look at everything in between.’

Tae smiled at his friend.

‘Goodnight, Ina,’ he said.

‘Goodnight,’ she answered with a smile.

Tae walked out, closing the door behind him, and Ina returned to reading.

18.V.2024