Memory Prison (2026) Original Oil Painting by laleliyegidentramvay

Every object in this painting arrived from someone else's hand. A single white glove and a pearl bracelet, worn once. A letter that begins in September and never quite gets to the point. Maupassant's Notre Coeur, its cover cut open into a heart. Two clovers pressed flat, two strawberries, two hearts, two twos, spades and hearts, a hand that means nothing in any real game. Dice. A matchbox that promises luck. A keyring from a trip, a keyhole with no door left behind it, and four wooden tiles spelling the shortest word anyone ever risks.

I painted them arranged, evenly spaced, each one given its own room on the surface. That is the prison. Nothing here is being used. Everything is being kept. These are the tokens of a romance, the superstitious little hoard two people build when they believe they are being watched over, and once it is over the hoard does not stop existing. It gets laid out and looked after. We tell ourselves we keep these things because throwing them away would erase the person attached to them, and that is true, and it is also how a drawer becomes a room you do not leave.

The hot pink was deliberate. I did not want mourning colours. The cruelty of a collection like this is that it stays cheerful. It keeps its charm and its luck and its brightness long after the thing it belonged to has gone, which is exactly what makes it hard to open.

Materials used:

on foamex board

Details:

• Oil painting on Panel / Board / MDF
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 54 x 54 x 3cm (framed) / 52 x 52cm (actual image size)
• Framed and ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: Still life