Clean out the field

Cleanse the soil

Nature can be healed?

Man will end his toil

Mud will be washed away

Along with all our deeds

Yet nature always has the last say

For the one who heeds

You can’t dilute the world

For Nature has the Power

In a plant unfurled

The death-mask poppy flower

ãThomas Somerson

Thomas viewed the poppy from a Victorian perspective. He saw it as a symbol of oblivion – and adopted it as his sign.

In the tragedy and destruction at the end of World War 1, in the gun-pounded soil of Flanders, the poppy took root. No amount of rain could wash the seeds away. The symbol of oblivion became the symbol of new life.

The combination of washing machine and poppy in his drawing, alludes to this paradox and hopefully resonates with the erotic and ironic implications of  nature/machine coupling.

Out of Thomas’ coupling with a washing machine (whose complications eventually led to his death) the flower of oblivion - offers new life – but not for the instigator. Only for the viewer – YOU.

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