Tim Schultz, Libido, 2020, oil and acrylic on linen, 82.00 x 56.50 x 5.00 cm, TCG22078
(photo: The Commercial)

The “dissolved girls” of Novalis have resolidified out of the ocean into a coagulation of mermaids lifted above the horizon of the drives. The nadir is repression, the zenith is artistic idealisation. At the bottom of the rock, two niches symbolise the filled and the hollow maternal fantasm. The libidinous ‘eruption’ is powered by the fingering of the central harp.