the will of man. graphite on paper. 1978 © demetrios vakras

This drawing was never rendered as a painting.

In this drawing, a hand emerges from pounding waves presenting a plate with a severed head on it. The severed head is a self-portrait (or rather, it is my own head reflected in a mirror which served as the model for the head - the beard was added). The head is bleeding from the eyes. Into and around the eyes crawl a multitude of ants. A fork is planted into the forehead. Out from the neck of what is ostensibly the head of a previously living being, emerge a series of geared wheels. The head is mechanical, not of flesh. The purpose of this is the contradiction: the mechanical cannot bleed and cannot attract ants, and cannot serve as food to be served on a platter. A mushroom cloud, with skeletal fingers emerging from it symbolising death rises in the background (left). Two oil tankers are moored in the mid-distance (why not?). The scene is viewed from inside a cave.