Winter’s End
On Show at Sydney Contemporary 2022, at Carriageworks, with Curatorial and Co
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I was swept into the world of Greek and Roman Mythology. Full of rich imagery and dark tales.
A mother, Ceres, wandering the earth searching for her daughter, Proserpina, who had been stolen by the god of the underworld, Pluto. Taken in her youth, while picking flowers in a field with her friends.
Another piece of music moved to the fore; a piece just as important as Proserpina. Seven Devils by Florence and The Machine. The power and movement of this song resonated on a level that joined Ceres in her war cry across the earth. One that caused sparks to shoot up from the ground, into the night sky above.
An unrelenting, determined cry of a mother protecting her child.
She had a power that carried great force behind it. A power to trample crops and lay waste to the earth, to render seeds un-growable, infertile.
A power to crush darkness and leave nothing but dust and devastation in it’s wake. (If she so chooses.)
A power to bring back the sun and cause seeds to grow again, to make fertile the lands that she once lay waste to. To cause abundant growth of everything; the fields returning to luscious green, flowers with brilliant shades of colour.
“The sun on her face lets her forget the rain on her back…”
Photo: Ann Graham