Echoes of the Damned

The painting began without a sketch or predetermined composition. A textured ground was built on a handmade canvas using wood glue, whiting powder, and cement powder. Once the surface had dried, bitumen was spread across it, and a petroleum-soaked cloth wrapped around the hand was used to remove parts of the dark material.

The faces appeared through removal rather than drawing. Over the course of a few hours, the figures gradually emerged from the darkness like voices buried beneath layers of silence.

Although the painting itself took only a few hours to complete, the bitumen required almost two years to dry fully. This prolonged material process became part of the work’s character, as though the surface continued to hold what it could not release.

The work does not depict a literal or religious hell. It reflects an inner condition where suffering is held for so long that it begins to echo within itself. At the center of Echoes of the Damned is a scream that was never uttered: suppressed pain that continues to cry out from within.