Red's Kingdom

Short Story: The Dining Room (2022)

The idea for this story came quickly, inspired in part by the conflict going on between the domesticity of the subject in Henri Matisse’s 1908 painting, Harmony In Red (our latest Kick-About prompt), and the roar of its redness, like a sudden rush of feeling, something eruptive and less civilised. I was excited too by…

philgomm
1 minute
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The idea for this story came quickly, inspired in part by the conflict going on between the domesticity of the subject in Henri Matisse’s 1908 painting, Harmony In Red (our latest Kick-About prompt), and the roar of its redness, like a sudden rush of feeling, something eruptive and less civilised. I was excited too by the strangeness of Matisse’s perspective, a world shunted off-kilter unexpectedly, and likewise by the very idea of Fauvism itself and all its ‘wild beasts’.

You can find a PDF version here.

2 responses to “Short Story: The Dining Room (2022)”

  1. Graeme Daly Avatar
    Graeme Daly

    When I first saw Matisse’s painting, one of the things that caught my eye was the lady, and how I imagined her as a helper in this place, and who is probably unhappy, but then didn’t think twice about it. You’ve taken this image and spooled a rich story that is such a (horrifying) delight to read! As is all your written work. X

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    1. philgomm Avatar
      philgomm

      Hey Graeme, happy to hear you enjoyed it; you can blame the colour red for everything that happened between these pages! Matisse made me do it!

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