It is now widely accepted that many of the myths from ancient Greece had their origins in what today we call The Middle East -including North Africa, especially Egypt.
In this exhibition I have drawn on this understanding, giving Hades, King of the Underworld a Tuareg complexion while Persephone has a distinctly Egyptian appearance. This is contrary to ‘iconic’ images we have of these mythical characters based on white marble statues from ancient Greece. My Venus is also very different and captures – or so I hope – an atavistic and distinctly pagan sexuality not found in ‘classical’ Greek or Roman sculptures.
The two myths that most interest me are those associated with Dionysus (whom the Romans called Bacchus) and Hades’ abduction of Persephone. The latter story tells how, following her daughter’s abduction, Demeter scoured the Earth. Everywhere she went, in her grief, the landscape perished. Only when Persephone was allowed back on Earth for six months each year did fertility return – hence the seasonal changes we experience.
This exhibition will be in the Warehouse Cafe
Free entry.
