Daily TribuneA 2023 digital painting that won second place in the 14th DLSU Annual Awards for the Visual Arts. It portrays class inequality through the metaphor of winemaking, where the wealth of the rich is steeped in the suffering of the poor.
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'The Maceration,' 2023 digital painting by Amelia Clarissa de Luna Monasterial.
@ameliaclarissaart on Instagram
Maceration, a process in winemaking, involves steeping uncrushed grapes in fermented grape juice to extract rich colour and aroma for the final taste and look of the wine.
Similarly, the wealth that the rich enjoy is steeped in the bodies of the poor and the working class. Labour, sacrifice, and suffering are the foundations of this opulence. The wealthy drink wine produced from the blood of the less privileged.
In the painting, the bodies of the poor are detailed through dark hatching and rely on simple values to communicate darkness and suffering. The rich are portrayed by hands with more realistic lighting details compared to the poor’s hatching. The hands carry the brightness of life and luxury. The artwork attempts to portray lavishness using a rich palette of teal, gold, and crimson, but the finer details reveal the darkness hidden under an opulent facade.
