A violent, almost abstract painting of a figure caught mid-fall or mid-execution, body contorted and wreathed in dark ropes or vines against a deep purple night sky. The figure's flesh is rendered in raw pinks and reds, streaked and torn as if flayed or badly wounded, arms flung wide with tendrils and cords twisting around the limbs like living restraints, while a small green-eyed, grinning face peers out from within the tangle of the body itself, suggesting some parasitic or demonic presence riding along with the victim. Jagged black shapes, possibly rooftops or industrial structures, cut into the lower corners of the frame, grounding the otherwise nightmarish, weightless composition in some urban or gothic setting. Bisley's brushwork here is at its loosest and most gestural, colour and form blurring together so the eye has to work to parse what is body, what is rope, and what is pure paint texture, a technique that turns physical horror into something closer to an emotional or psychological impression than a literal illustration. The scattered white flecks of light across the purple background suggest either falling debris or stars, adding to the sense of vertiginous motion, as though the whole scene is caught in the instant of a plunge. Without a clear narrative anchor, the painting reads as one of Bisley's stand-alone mood pieces, built to convey dread and bodily violation rather than to illustrate a specific panel of dialogue or plot.
Taken for a ride on a rope
