Eva Grypari

Eva Grypari

GR

2023 Garden of Mysteries

Mykonos Biennale  -  Captured Mysteries, 2023 - screen shot

Captured Mysteries, 2023

The artwork Captured Mysteries is a hanging structure with painting, paper-cutting and decorative elements such as beads, shells and flowers, which is based on a hexagonic canvas. For the painting part, which was made with acrylics and colored pencils, my inspiration was the myth of Orpheus and particularly his ability to enchant and influence all beings with the playing of his lyre. On the canvas basis, there are four scenes interplaying, while the structure in total can rotate. Two magical gardens, with strange beings, and fairies. and two mystical places, inspired by the balanced duality of day and night. Orpheus, “ the one that cures with light” is my inspiration for the symbols used, like the cosmic egg and the snake which is a symbol of the Orphic cosmogony.The base of the structure, a hexagonic canvas, is a reference to the hexagonal golden chain that the Orphics used to put to the neck of their dead mystics, which symbolized the essence of the soul. According to the Pythagoreans, number six, as a quality, expresses the ensoulment of beings. Number six, also connects to the hermaphrodite element, and the polarities such as male/female, positive/negative, light/darkness.The Orphic mysteries give inspiration and magic in abundance, and the garden of mysteries to me, who since a child was entranced by mythology and magic, is a subject that I feel lucky to be involved and called to create upon.