Rottefangeren/Trump 1

I painted this large work as power in dissolution. The figure stretches out its arms, as if asking for trust, but the face has already been wiped away. What should have been a human being has become a shadow, a silhouette of something we once believed in. The red running down is not only pain; it is the consequence of decisions taken far from those who have to live with them.

In today's politics I often see this same gesture: open hands, big promises, an invitation to follow. But behind the gesture lies a gradual erosion of responsibility. This is where the figure of the pied piper comes in — the one who leads the crowd with enticing notes, not necessarily towards salvation, but towards a hidden abyss. The figure in the picture is both the piper and those who follow him. It is trapped in its own story.

The drips on the wall are the witnesses of time. They show how narratives slowly break down, how façades crack. I wanted to create unease: a sense that we are all standing before this figure and must ask ourselves — do we follow, or do we see through the illusion?

Artist

Trond Berg-Nilssen

Technique

Oil on canvas

Size

120 × 88 cm

Price (excl. art royalty)

NOK 28,000

Edition

Original work — 1 of 1

Signature

Trond Berg-Nilssen

Represented by

Trond Berg-Nilssen gallery

Shipping

Personal delivery in Southern Norway, guaranteed shipping via Posten elsewhere

Framing / other

Without frame