IT Support, How Can I Help You

What the painting shows

This watercolour shows a satirical tech-support office staffed by monkeys that look like macaques. In the foreground a brown monkey wearing blue headphones with a microphone types on a keyboard in front of a large monitor, looking slightly surprised. A banana lies next to the keyboard, and small brown poos drawn like emoji sit on the desk and on top of the monitor.

Behind it, at a second desk, another monkey with a headset shouts into its microphone with its mouth wide open. Further back, out on the street, a third monkey waves cheerfully. The office is set right on a market street: in the background there are colourful stalls with bananas, vegetables and flowers, red and yellow awnings, and a turquoise-green three-wheeled auto rickshaw (tuk-tuk).

The title "IT Support, how can I help you" quotes the standard greeting of a tech-support hotline. The piece is a playful comment on the chaos and frustration familiar to anyone who has called outsourced technical support.

Technique and style

A vertical watercolour on paper torn from a spiral-bound sketchbook (the ragged holes are visible at the top), with outlines drawn in fine ink. The style is illustrative and cartoon-like, with a warm yellow-brown palette and transparent glazes. Details such as cables, keyboards and goods on the stalls are carefully worked out, giving the scene density and humour.

At a glance

• Medium: watercolour with ink outlines
• Surface: paper
• Orientation: portrait (vertical)
• Dominant colours: ochre, browns, blue, green, pink, yellow
• Subjects: monkeys, macaques, call centre, tech support, computers, street market, tuk-tuk, satire

Fun fact

The long-tailed macaques at Uluwatu Temple in Bali run a real barter economy. They steal tourists' glasses, phones and hats and only give them back in exchange for food. A study published in 2021 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B showed that the monkeys understand value: for more valuable items, such as a phone, they hold out for more snacks.

Want a similar painting?

The Fart studio paints commissioned artwork: portraits of people and pets, landscapes and absurd scenes like this one. You can order a similar piece featuring monkeys, macaques, call centre, starring your own pet, a loved one or your favourite place. Just describe your idea in the contact form and attach a photo.