When a young Anthony Van Dyck was under quarantine in Sicily almost 400 years ago, he was faced with a now familiar sense of horror as 10,000 Palermitani died in agony around him. Though the citizens of Sicily looked to God and the ‘little Saint’ Rosalie for salvation, our debt is to the nurses and front-line workers risking their own lives to help others. It is a consequence of deep-rooted patriarchal structures that the burden of care still falls largely on women and ‘Saint Rosalie Interceding For The Plague-Stricken Of London’ is as much a recognition of women’s uneven contribution to care as it is an homage to Van Dyck and the heroes we look to in plague-enforced isolation.⁣

Saint Rosalie Interceding For The Plague-Stricken Of London, 2020⁣⁣⁣
Charcoal, oil, spray paint and red wine on unprimed canvas, mounted in pine box frame⁣⁣⁣
200 x 150 x 10cm⁣⁣⁣