Three bare-chested men wearing shorts and gold chains relax in the shade in American artist Henry Taylor’s ‘Forest fever ain’t nothing like, “Jungle Fever”‘. The painting is a reimagining of Manet’s ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’ from 1863, except with a football in place of Manet’s upturned picnic basket. And right of centre in Taylor’s seemingly placid scene, laid out on the green grass, is a football top displaying the name of Kylian Mbappé. Writing in the latest issue of OOF, @kadishmorris suggests that the shirt is symbolic of a political undercurrent in the work; a nod to Mbappé’s forthright stance on racism. ‘The shirt proudly resting close to the body of one of the figures is a sign of solidarity with the footballer’, writes Morris. Given that the painting was first exhibited in Paris in 2023, it could easily be read as a protest against the French Football Federation’s failure to support the player after he’d suffered racist abuse from fans following the national team’s defeat to Switzerland in 2021.