![Nothing](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/287b90989c656d56504b75d04d61dc02c223e20b-5472x3648.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Waiting in 1990
The receptionist smiles and leans over the front desk. She passes me a blank colouring-in book and a handful of pens and pencils. I can wait over there. Printed with chunky lines on white paper, the cover depicts a schematic of the same waiting room in which I’m standing. A generic image of a child has been inserted next to the reception desk. Child and desk are dwarfed by a perfectly rotund cartoon droplet standing next to them. The droplet looks down at the child with googly eyes and a wide grin. It has two arms and two legs. It wears shoes. It says something via a speech bubble that I assume is welcoming. In the next page, the droplet gestures with its gloved hands to other rooms beyond the frame, inviting the child to take a guided tour. Unclenching my fist, I survey my colouring options. I pick the red pen first, but it has already run out, leaving only a brittle squeak and pink smear. I fill in the fat droplet with green pencil instead.
![Nothing](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/029bdc9257c5edd3ff39865a2930ca023cc7282a-3750x2758.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![Nothing](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/c7da02061c8fcd173540043bb2863445619586c0-5472x3648.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
There is a subsection of kink called ‘Vore’. To count as Vore, the thing or image has to be consuming itself. The Vore genre is primarily considered a sexual fetish, but representations aren’t always schlocky cannibalism. In fact, it’s a fairly common occurrence in everyday life: butchers adorn their vans with comical pigs snaffling sausage rolls; ice cream parlours decorate their part of the sidewalk with sculptural effigies of a big drippy cone licking a mini drippy cone; cartoons of burgers are often, by dint of their bun-shaped mouths, already munching down on a beef patty with tomato and lettuce. After Jesus and his disciples, smiley face ecstasy pills and their consumers are perhaps the most mainstream human symbol of Vore culture: eat the happiness you want to be.
Part-distraction, part-education, the book is a Vore-ish attempt to assuage panic – panic of blood, panic of needles, panic of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis, panic of death. It seeks to consume attention and, in doing so, habituate a narration of blood. The duration required to fill in this book also allows for the other practical things that happen here to take place with less interruption: the time it takes an adult to donate a pint of blood, the time taken by a nurse to administer an infusion, the time needed to interview someone as a transfusion candidate.
As well as the small child and the big droplet, there are other characters that appear in later pages of this colouring-in book. A red blood cell presents a challenge for my remaining colouring options – green pencil already taken, so it goes purple. Boringly, a white blood cell is meant to stay blank, but I fill it in orange highlighter anyway. Some of the flashier disposable pens that the receptionist gave me come bearing logos I’ve seen around here before: Glaxo, Pfizer, Bayer, Astra – companies with a stake in the droplet’s story. But after testing each of the pens, I find that their ink is either just black or blue biro. I toss the book aside after encountering a platelet and ask the receptionist if I can have one of the patient cookies.
Mason Leaver-Yap
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/9059b4cf6f30ae7838d2da0a5eeffe819bfe2d50-4000x2963.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/fef7c3b737b48e1496fae0bf9389d4da7691cacd-4000x2963.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/867cbc94e222c61b65db91d73f21b87b6fb7c143-3192x4000.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/473ab06b6a4747eb0d37da11ce06ccfa4ffc1fab-4000x2975.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![Oranges vs Them](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/521a5c4a49edd501b81944bab2be5b4f797a557b-2000x1482.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Oranges vs Them
2020
oil pastel, colour pencil, graphite and mixed media on newsprint
27.9 × 21.6
9 × 12
SOLD
![Notes](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/bf4e5ee85f85c83179a1994076f92afa0e4ed536-2000x1569.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![I Visionari](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/5829fe26b6b12c9f7ede25ed14a92f471f3f29c3-4000x2982.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
I Visionari
2021
graphite, oil pastel and colour pencil on newsprint
22.9 × 30.5 cm
9 × 12 in
SOLD
![Curious Waiter](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/fef7c3b737b48e1496fae0bf9389d4da7691cacd-4000x2963.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![Equation Under the Sun / Day Out](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/18da9db753d60aee41dbe7854c4b4312d36a36a2-4000x2979.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Equation Under the Sun / Day Out
2020
graphite, oil pastel and colour pencil on newsprint
22.9 × 30.5 cm
9 × 12 in
![Punto zero tutto](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/06409b241519085ffa67673c318f952c630a0afc-4000x3027.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Punto zero tutto
2020
oil pastel, graphite and mixed media on newsprint
22.9 × 30.5 cm
9 × 12 in
SOLD
![Spazio Humano](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/473ab06b6a4747eb0d37da11ce06ccfa4ffc1fab-4000x2975.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Spazio Humano
2020
pen, oil pastel, graphite and mixed media on newsprint
22.9 × 30.5 cm
9 × 12 in
SOLD
![Morbido Assoluto](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/baa77ad011ab8973426b40ffc868ee891a39fdfe-4000x3002.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![Fin](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/d72e57b4e3de4ddd7c7a498892b4e4ffb1b78924-4000x2901.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Fin
2020
china marker, graphite and oil pastel on paper
29.5 × 40.6 cm
11⅝ × 16 in
SOLD
![Professore](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/445765941214292933093b753168b6bbed25df49-4000x2687.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![Clown Monument](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/9e9485d0e2b4387d5e5218fd22b8eaa94ae31904-4000x2931.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Clown Monument
2020
oil pastel, graphite, china marker and colour pencil on newsprint
29.2 × 40.6 cm
11½ × 16 in
![Studiolo](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/7abdd42c7ea7f300373f21e8054bd2c405496afb-4000x2745.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Studiolo
2020
oil pastel, graphite, charcoal, colour pencil and pen on newsprint
30.5 × 45.7 cm
12 × 18 in
![Scopa](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/591430509a35fe558b4570c6f556efca375a2722-2985x4000.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Scopa
2020
oil pastel, graphite, colour pencil and charcoal on newsprint
30.5 × 22.9 cm
12 × 9 in
![Examen des Preuves](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/4a698bf37b233f32802918b033fdb6e1aa76d955-2683x4000.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Examen des Preuves
2020
oil pastel, graphite, charcoal and colour pencil on newsprint
45.7 × 30.5 cm
18 × 12 in
![Game Narrator](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/6aafb4b8e86e06a7e9b2664293e4e3ab671e78fa-2915x4000.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Game Narrator
2021
oil pastel, graphite, charcoal, colour pencil and acrylic on paper
40.6 × 29.5 cm
16 × 11⅝ in
SOLD
![Counting Friend](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/0fed4b5678cdc735abe50c98b06c04d3c293586f-2764x4000.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Counting Friend
2020
oil pastel, graphite, colour pencil, china marker and acrylic on newsprint
43.8 × 30.5 cm
17¼ × 12 in
![Scultura Obbidiante / Perfect Day](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/867cbc94e222c61b65db91d73f21b87b6fb7c143-3192x4000.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
Scultura Obbidiante / Perfect Day
2020
acrylic, oil pastel, graphite and charcoal on MDO
27.9 × 21.6 cm
11 × 8½ in
![Nothing](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/72ce1425674f3a847087821e6b5dba11988a16f7-3784x2721.jpg?w=6&blur=10)
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cfyi969j/production/9e9485d0e2b4387d5e5218fd22b8eaa94ae31904-4000x2931.jpg?w=6&blur=10)