John Kirby In Another Country, 1998

British artist John Kirby’s (1949-2025) acclaimed practice grappled with aspects of personal identity, including sexual ambiguity, familial relationships, religion, death, and isolation. Although many of his works are sublimated self-portraits, Kirby painted the self, rather than himself, exploring the perpetual challenges of being human. His oeuvre shows a directness of empathy for his subjects, who are often embedded in coded surreal narratives.

In Another Country, 1998 depicts a solitary nude, expressionless figure, age, and sexuality ambiguous, with a bird landing, or retreating, from the subject's hand within a dreamlike landscape. The seemingly never-ending sky and field highlight the isolation of this anonymous space. In the distance, a tower looms, alluding to both a guardhouse and a beacon, reinforcing feelings of confinement with a desire for safety. 

Within Kirby's practice, there is a major group of paintings in which a single figure is seen alone with an animal such as a bird or dog, further foregrounding the desolation of the environment, geographic or psychic, while providing elements of hope, companionship, and transformation. The title, In Another Country, reinforces that the figure yearns for liberation, and in an alternative place, they would have been emancipated.