Butterfly Dreams

Butterfly Dreams
Private Collection, Italy
Artists: Latif Maulan
24 Inch x 48 Inch
Oil On Canvas 2006
© All Right Reserved

Butterfly Dreams is a great title that conjures up a vision of Madam Butterfly, a play dealing with love, self-deceit and tragedy with a young fragile girl as the heroine. It invokes tender secrets (illegal and immoral?) and eroticism, the tenderness appealing to our protective instincts. Despite its symbolism and high importance, the butterfly tattoo (probably chosen by the woman to reflect her nature) occupies only a minute but obvious area of the picture.

The shapely woman seems to be on her way home after work, the time being already 05:04 p.m., approaching twilight, a time when crimes such as rape, murder, robbery or molestation is more likely to happen. Her red dress echoes the red warning band by the sides of the coming train. The composition of the scene is painted from the viewpoint of a common pedestrian walking up a flight of steps to the platform.

As we look up naturally and as we are directly behind the woman, we are unable to help from looking at the fluttering butterfly on the exposed waistline,. Is she trying to do more than invite our attention? It may be for fun, but the tattoo may send out wrong signals to unwanted viewers. Who’s fault is it should something undesirable happen to her?