NYX

Suspended from a pointed hat covered in cascading faux black hair, an organic form suggestive of two weightless bodies intertwined, simultaneously coming together and pulling apart in the middle of a transfigurative artistic mitosis. Beneath are swirling legs and amphibious frog-like feet belonging to a creature at ease in both the elements of water and on earth. These individual elements attached vertically come together to form Nyx, covered in purple and black skin branded with a pattern suggestive of swirling, agitated waters where action and power bubbles beneath the surface. She slowly spins around, becoming a hypnotic whirling dervish between worlds in the midst of a shamanic rite. The hat, often historically seen as an identity signifier, is further complicated by the complex symbol of a woman’s hair signifying fertility, aesthetic beauty and often associated with a woman’s private life or sexuality. In Greek mythology, the goddess Nyx was the personification of the night, and who according to Hesiod’s poem Theogony, was born of Chaos, the void which preceded the creation of the universe. Having emerged from this nothingness, she, with Erebus (darkness), bore two children Aether (atmosphere) and Hemera (day). Later eschewing a mate, she gave birth to her children Momos (guilt), Ponos (toil), Moros (fate), Thanatos (death) and Hypnos (sleep) and the Kers, the violent goddesses of death. Nyx begins and ends with darkness.

Styrofoam, putty, glue, curved metal, faux hair, hand dyed and hand screen printed fabric, acrylic color, engine, wire, protective textile spray. Height 300 cm + wire and engine.
Installation views from Teckningsmuseet Laholm, The Museum of drawing, Sweden