The Hour of the King

The Hour of the King is a story about a relationship between a little girl and her mentally degenerating grandmother who is getting lost in the world of her visions and paranoias. Loosely based on my childhood memories, it is a dark tale of emotional disintegration, seen through the eyes of a child who reaches out for the fantastical and the symbolic as a way to decipher an otherwise incomprehensible reality.

The series of paintings, which were developed in reference to a 250+ image storyboard to be featured in an experimental graphic novel, can be viewed both as part of a larger narrative as well as independent works. Using a variety of visual languages, from abstract geometry and symbolism to realistic portrait, they explore the problems of physical and emotional loneliness, time and ageing, the role of imagery in developing memories, the vulnerability of someone at the brink of their mental demise, and the vulnerability of a child exposed to illness, rejection, and fear.

A selection of the paintings was initially presented at a joint exhibition with Oxford-based painter Andris Wood at the Gasoline Rooms gallery in London in 2013, and more works were presented in 2017 at 8 ª Abertura dos Ateliês de Artistas de Lisboa.