Uncomfortable Table: Service

Year | 2025

Medium | Acrylic gouache on canvas

Size | 18.0 W x 15.0 H in

Additional Details | “Uncomfortable Table: Service” explores the threshold where polite habit is used as an excuse for complicity. As a tangled tentacle underneath the table rises to dismantle the table quietly, the two figures standing beside it don’t react; they keep their conversation, eyes fixed anywhere but the tentacle. This piece is less about ignorance but more about the "performance of normalcy." I wanted to illustrate how social etiquette can be weaponized to drown out the obvious, creating a space where damage is allowed to persist simply because no one wishes to break the silence. The "Service" in the title refers not just to the meal, but to the point where ignorance isn’t so much a habit as denial rehearsed until it feels normal.