Odi et Amo is a symbolic representation of the complex psychological depth of relationships and the power struggle that emanates within them. Two lovers, represented by a bull and a torero, eye each other. They wrap themselves in their own worlds. This relationship is confrontational, a conflict in which each sees the other as a threat.

Neither of them considers himself safe. They’ve erected barriers and protections around their ‘self’. However, their world is frail and this frailty is reflected in the painting by the perspective, deformed by the strong tensions between them. The bull’s tail enters into the room. A provocation.  The rules of spatial representation are broken: the two opposing worlds are about to crumple. There can be only one victor. Symbols of this conflict are strewn all over the floor: a green cushion used to cover the stone seats of the arena and the red roses, objects which are thrown into the air at the conclusion of a ‘corrida.’

Soon everything will find its end: the tension between eros and thanatos, control and being controlled, attraction and rejection. The setting of the sun is a reminder to the two lovers that time is slipping. In the motionless air, the poem ‘Odi et Amo’ written by Catullus`, a first century B.C. Roman poet, floats.