After the Flagellation (of Jesus Christ... by Piero Della Francesca), 2000

Only when this picture was finished was I minded of Piero Della Francesca's masterpiece, 'The Flagellation of Christ' (1476?). This title came about through responding to certain similarities in its spatial organisation and balance of physical presence and spiritual calm. It is suitable for the word 'Flagellation' to find its way into the title, portraying, as it does, the wonderfully contrasting ideas of religious discipline and sexual stimulation. The picture deliberately set out to combine the opposing elements of intellectual activity and sensual pleasure.

As in other works of the period, the numerals '0' and '1' represent the idea of female and male whilst the embryonically shaped 5 is half the one and half the other. The figure 5, having its own identity, underlies the composition, even with its mirror image being barely discernible in the central dark panel.

The tactile, discarded violin and 'cello necks, together with the perfectly formed ping-pong balls, carry sexual overtones and are intended as a synecdoche for people. These characters have been precisely and individually placed within a visually defined space, similar in intention to, but in a different language from the Italian Renaissance masterpiece.