The auspicious lineage of profile portraiture is here comandeered as archaeology - an excavation of a soul. Shoulders and neck are painted smooth in ebonised brown with an Adam's apple to suggest anatomical completeness. Various irregular highlights are smudged to glow, pulsing upwards to the eviscerated head still composed enough to maintain its sidewards poise.

The lower part of the face has the feel of a vulcanised landscape. The way the thick paint has been applied in oblongs hints at basalt rock outcrops bathed in magma. The layering of the paint creates reliefed terraces suggesting the violence of the flesh torn asunder.

The decaying feel of the central portion is like a dilapidated fresco. The tapestry is exposed in the cranial cavity, its weave still visible. Softer hues police the left perimeter of the skull. But its the contained void that invites the viewer to interpolate with their own projections.

The title of the painting has a geological reverence. An intermingling of the mammal with an ancient inorganic yet vitalistic energy.

Part of a group exhibition 'Post Woke Body Shop' at GPS Gallery Soho London from 03 to 15 June 2025 co-curated by the artist and fellow exhibitor Jonathan Armour.