The Peacock

Sudheera Dissanayake (Sudjuice), The Peacock, 2023, Synthetic Polymer on canvas, 123 x 90cm

The Peacock draws inspiration from Aesop’s fable The Peacock and the Crane. In the story, the crane rises effortlessly into the open sky, while the peacock, dazzling but heavy with self-regard, remains bound to the ground. Stunned by the crane’s quiet grace, the peacock begins to question the value of its own brilliance.

This work imagines the peacock in that moment of reckoning. Does it collapse into despair, or can envy turn into longing, and longing into flight? Can the sight of another’s freedom become a spark for its own transformation?

The painting seeks to embody the peacock’s inner turmoil. It lingers in the space between beauty and usefulness, pride and humility, despair and possibility. In suffering its first true wound of comparison, the peacock stumbles upon a threshold of self-awareness, revealing how fragile and how fluid the story of identity can be.