After Bosnia I the talking had ceased.
The war was going at a pace, ethnic cleansing began, unleashing a terror beyond comprehension, ordinary people caught up in a political nightmare.
Central to the painting are three faces, two above the water line the other below, these represent the three warring factions, two of them hoping for a political settlement, the other having a different agenda, hell-bent on furthering their own megalomania. This I may add at the expense of the innocents.
The two "Masks" represent light and dark, metaphor for good and bad, right and wrong, war has replaced it with darkness, satanic overtones and oppression.
The two "Entities" one below water, the other exiting the chimney, looking closely you will discover that their bodies are dissected, as you would be if you were dead and having a Post Mortem. This coupled with the "Knight" chess piece, symbolically portraying the "Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" is self evident that there are no winners in war. This "Charger" has and is riding roughshod over the peoples of former Yugoslavia.
Revelations. 6:8
The Apocalypse or the last book of the new testament.
"And I saw a pale horse,
and a pale rider upon it,
and the name of the horse was pestilence,
and the name of the rider was "Death" !
Pertinent and apt epitaph to Bosnia's history.
The chimney is reminiscent of Hitler's Death Camps, genocide, mass graves and raw savagery.
The chess board like path, usually it would be black and white, but in this scenario it is coloured Red and Yellow. Red for Blood, rage, hostility, repression and danger. Yellow for intelligence, and tranquillity.
The latter evidently abandoned to the dark force of the Red. Notice, it's a Red square that's opened the "Pandora's Box", the horseman on a yellow square directing operations. To the bottom right there is a women holding a knife, she is consumed with grief, her maternal instincts are one of defence, protection of her offspring at all cost.
(Using your skills on your computer turn the painting on it's
left-hand side, the figure just below the water line, central,
follow the contour of the face, it will reveal the word "Liars".
Appropriate, as faction policies were flawed and distasteful to
a civilised society.)
And finally where are the great religions of the world, they to have been so quick to act, as the warring factions use their names to front their actions ?
Can a few years in power as an hated dictator compensate for the inevitable
execution or imprisonment that must eventually follow ? What real
freedom does such a person have ? Always hiding behind guards,
suspicious of everyone, never able to relax...a prisoner in himself.
Can they really expect to fool 'all of the people, all of the time' ?
Sadly, some think so.
Yet we are aware, your motives are visible, our tolerance is exhaustible...