Enkidu

A bald man seen from the front, head bowed, black shoulders set against a pale round halo. Chest and arms are cut into rectangles of teal, ochre and black, with red running down the forearm. A disc covers his mouth. Ruled plates fill the wall behind.

The forearm is brushed, loose and heavy, the red dragged in wet strokes. The chest is built otherwise: ruled boxes, a circle laid over the mouth, a rectangle stepping out of the black like a floor plan. Weight of hand and rule of measure divide the torso between them, and the bargaining happens along those edges. Nothing in the figure answers to a known type.

A person who hangs this man at home loses the comfort of the single outline. The silhouette reads at once as a solid body, then the patches show it put together, and the habit of seeing oneself as one piece loosens.