Plant themed artwork collection developed for a new kind of interaction between the viewer and selected natural plants via touch and smell.
'Echo' (25x15cm)
The ancient myth behind:
Echo tried her best to gain the attention of Narcissus, to no avail, at her wits end, seeing him alone in the woods one day, Echo drew up her courage and threw her arms around him.
Narcissus, taken by surprise, exclaimed ‘Hands off! I would rather die than you should have me!’
Mortified with shame, Echo ran to hide in the woods and from that time on, lived in a cave, her body wasting away from sadness; her bones changed into rocks, there was nothing left but her voice, with which she repeated anything she heard called out by passersby, she had become her namesake, Echo.
' After Peony' ( 25x17cm)
The peony is named after Paeon (also spelled Paean), a student of Asclepius and the Greek god of medicine and healing.
There are two conflicting Greek myths surrounding the peony, this explains how some consider the peony to symbolize compassion, whilst others think the peony is an unlucky flower.
In one tale, the peonies take their name from the Greek word Paeon, The name “Paeon” was also used in a general sense to refer to anyone who could save people from evil or calamity or had the power to deliver men from the sorrow and pains of living.
Paeon was the physician to the gods who quite unintentionally, drove his teacher, Asclepius, into a rage, after he succeeded in healing Pluto with a milky liquid which he had extracted from the root of a peony.
'Asclepius in the garden' (25x18cm)
'Poppy' (23x19cm)
In Ancient Greece, the poppy was a symbol of sleep and death, associated with Morpheus, God of sleep and dreams, and Demeter, Goddess of agriculture.
Morpheus slept in a cave full of poppy seeds while shaping dreams and this is why the opium – based medication, used for insomnia, as well as pain, is known as morphine.
It is said that Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, created the poppy so she could sleep, Theocritus, a Sicilian poet, c. 300 BC, described one of Demeter’s earlier roles as that of a goddess of poppies and in many myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead, as their bright scarlet colour was thought to signify the promise of resurrection after death.
Some sources say, Rhea, the mother of goddess’ and her daughter, Demeter, brought the poppy from her Cretan cult to Eleusis and it is almost certain that in the Cretan cult circle, opium was derived from poppies.
2021
