Pig Slaughter (2021)

Oil on raw linen (no gesso), 140 x 200 cm. Based on a photo from late 1980’s Czechoslovakia. It shows my father-in-law, the village butcher, with a pig he’s slaughtered for the neighbor’s Zabijačka (or “pig slaughter” in Czech), a traditional annual feast in the Czech Republic. A note on the back of the photo contains a date: 24 Dec 1989 — just days before the official end of the Velvet Revolution.