:: 2011 :: 100cm x 100cm in four 50cm panels :: Acrylics, Inks & Markers on Canvas ::
We pass over the threshold into the Eleusinian Mysteries, into the secrets of the rites, and the first message we encounter is that Demeter, goddess of fertility, is also Kore, the Maiden, and the Mistress of Life and Death. There is a cycle visible here: Kore's realm on the right is filled with life and flowers. Living souls surround the landscape and she bears a sheaf of barley and poppies. Baubo bears her vagina to the world and her birthwaters feed and fill the well of the Kallichoron.
But on the left, there is the realm of Antaia 'Demeter of the Ghosts': here, dead spirits dwell and flowers die away. With two torches she burns away the mortal flesh of Demophoon, both killing him and immortalising him at the same time. This Mystery is gazed upon by the serpent who guards the sacred objects in the kiste, which will be opened later.
This, then, is the gateway to the Mystery: we see Demeter both enraged and vengeful, and in her maidenly joyful aspect, as Death and Life, and we can already see how soon she will merge with her daughter Persephone...
