Stairway to Nowhere

A colourful, cloud-peppered sky, various marine animals, and a black staircase with vine detailing on the bannisters. This piece is fantastical, odd, and otherworldly, featuring the telltale elements of surrealism. At first glance, the composition is sure to perplex, but this richly-hued work carefully veils complex symbolism, which glints at the viewer through the vessel of its makeup.

 The fishes and the orca are likely the first to draw one's eye - the sea creatures symbolize helplessness and fear, since they are bound to the body of water they typically inhabit. But by pulling these creatures from their natural habitat and placing them in a vivid, open sky instead, they are freed from those negative connotations. Their place in the clouds signifies autonomy at the cost of tradition, as they have left the land of their ancestors to instead inhabit a vast world.

The staircase is presented as an arbitrary path - offering no use in the midst of clouds, where space is unlimited and a set of stairs cannot lead anywhere in particular. Thereby, the staircase symbolises the illusion of choice - how decisions that inspire so much doubt and worry are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The plethora of selections that we spend so much of our time deliberating upon each day are entirely inconsequential when scaled against the boundless expanse of the universe.

The utilization of brightly coloured, whimsical elements accents the piece with a sense of childlike wonder and peace. An orange hue recurs in different parts of the work to lend it a cohesive look. It evokes a feeling similar to that which one experiences when looking at an illustration in a children’s book, but a deeper meaning flickers beneath the surface. Overall, the contrast of the background with the elements of the composition is unfamiliar, but not jarring, allowing the viewer to temporarily soar with the fish in a dreamlike world.