Ayotunde Ayobello
Oil on canvas
Phobias manifest in countless forms, their intensity ranging from mild unease to crippling paralysis. Central to their treatment is exposure therapy, a method of gradual, controlled confrontation with fear. Step by step, the impossible becomes tolerable, and what once dominated the mind loosens its grip.
In this work, Ayobello renders the idea vividly: a colleague, smiling against a mosaic of warm colors, holds a live snake, one of humanity’s most enduring symbols of fear. The brightness of his expression juxtaposes the primal anxiety evoked by the serpent, embodying the paradox at the heart of exposure: courage and discomfort intertwined, healing born from deliberate contact with the very thing we dread.
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