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THE FLOWERS OF OFELIA

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2016

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Fintan Magee (Australian)

Mural Painting in the alleyway by Sankt Olai Kirke (Church)

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n this mural painting the artist deals with Ophelia’s tragedy and death. Ophelia is Hamlet’s fiancée and, in the fourth act of Shakespeare’s play, Ophelia describes the people around her as flowers. This is her metaphorical way of talking about her relations to these people.
On the mural painting, Magee has worked with flowers as symbols. As an
experienced artist, he has created a work with several levels of depth and meanings. Close up, the painting appears expressionistic, with a well of strong colours, feelings and contrasts. If one looks at it from a greater distance, there emerges a larger and more integrated picture of all the flowers and tones which Ophelia makes use of when she describes her closest relations. The depth of the painting gives a strong impression of wet flowers in a lake, crying out and drowning in the water. In this respect the painting is closely connected to the rest of the artist’s practice, which also deals with themes such as flooding and the flight from war and violence.
 
Act 4, Scene 5
Ophelia to Leartes:
”There´s rosemary, that´s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that´s for thoughts.”