Persephone

Bronze; incorporating glass, wood, plaster and clay in display.

In Greek myth, Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, was kidnapped by Hades and became the queen of the Underworld after she was tricked into eating seeds from a pomegranate fruit. Her mother Demeter’s grief brings about a most barren winter, the earth becomes dry and crops no longer grow. Hades is persuaded to allow Persephone to return to the surface world for six months of the year. When Persephone is reunited with her mother, spring flourishes again and the land comes back to life.

This piece explores themes of determinism, grief and the circularity of nature. The physicality of the moment of original sin, captured in the bell jar, is evocative of specimens collected as curiosities during the Victorian era.