Classical Beauty

Classically Cupid

 

Katelyn Parker, 2014.

The West has always been attracted to and borrowed heavily from classical societies.  The West owes much of its legal and justice systems, literature, drama and art to the early influences of the classical civilisations.

The body of work I am developing for my final year of my degree reflects on the beauty of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.  This first thread focuses on aspects of the original narrative that have fallen, discarded, along the way as Western civilisations have found new uses for Cupid within their own consumer cultures.  Even as far back as the Renaissance consumers in the West have found the figure of Cupid alluring and desirable.  Centuries after the Old Masters described the myth, with alterations, in their grand and epic oil paintings for wealthy patrons,  consumer culture still has a use for the central figure of the myth.  Psyche has largely fallen by the wayside, no longer really part of contemporary understanding of the myth.  

In the image above I am trying to reacquaint the viewer with the essence of the original narrative.  A big part of this is to re-establish Cupid as being an adolescent male rather than the sentimentally kitsch chubby cherub of the Renaissance period.

Figure stock fro the Public Domain retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Textures by NinjaRabbit-Stock

Eradicating Psyche

The Lost Psyche

 

Katelyn Parker, 2014

Part of my objective for this first thread of the body of work is to describe some of the interaction that takes place between the central characters of the myth.  This exploration of human weakness and faility is missing from our contemporary understandings of Cupid as consumer culture has sanitised and simplified the text.

In the image here I wanted to describe the intimate physical contact between Cupid and Psyche.  The physical touch between the two lovers that the viewer is able to interpret and relate to.  For the viewer I believe this puts the myth on a very human level.  This enable the viewer to connect more fully and emotionally to the loss of the meaning of the cultural text.  I have used images from the public domain as I believe they have an oldness that speaks to the age of the myth.

Bringing the old photographs into the contemporary while at the same time retaining the old quality that I was originally attracted to needed a very sensitive and subtle approach.  I thought about what has changed in the way that artists make art, since the Renaissance to now, and the answer lay in the greatest game changer of all time.  THE INTERNET and the online creative community.  As technology has become cheaper and the online Collective Intelligence grows and grows, artists are able to collaborate to create artworks that just ten years ago would have been impossible.  I have sourced textures created by artists who specialise in them to include in my final artworks.  By doing this the antiquity of the figure stock is retained but the final images are able to sit comfortably in a contemporary forum.

Figure stock is from the public domain retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Textures by  NinjaRabbit-Stock

Silenced

Katelyn Parker, 2014

Using images from the Public Domain is crucial to the success of this first thread for my final body of work.  By doing this I hope that I am drawing the viewer into the historical representation of Cupid.  In the image above I am attempting to connect to the historical but begin to connect the viewer into the contemporary part of my work.  The approaches I am employing at this stage rely on Grotesque principles, or applying a slight psychological shock to the work.  Cupid's mouth being covered with a bloodied bandage speaks to the silencing of the original meanings and purposes for the myth.  Once used to teach a civilisation moral and ethical lessons, the myth now is attached mindlessly and carelessly to commodities.

The ultimate aim of this thread is to position the myth historically and to begin to describe the erosion of meaning.  The theme of erosion is one that will carry through the body of work to the final thread, The desolation of Cupid.

Figure stock is from Wikimedia Commons, all other stock is my own.
Textures by NinjaRabbit-Stock

Portrait of Cupid

Katelyn Parker, 2014

Portrait of Cupid

For my final body of work for my degree I am putting together a series of artworks to describe how the original meanings of the myth of Cupid and Psyche have been eroded over the centuries.

The series begins by attempting to connect the viewer to the original content of the myth, but in a contemporary context.  

The original myth contains much that even now a contemporary audience can relate to through their own lived experience.  The myth follows the path of the relationship between Cupid and Psyche, beginning with the insane jealousy of Venus which brings the two protangonists together to begin with.  Jealous of Psyche's inhumanly impossible beauty Venus seeks to destroy her.  To little avail though as the weapon she sends to carry out the destruction ends up hopelessly attracted to her.  Psyche ends up being betrayed by her own father, keen to appease the Gods, and banished to live alone.  Cupid visits on the condition that she never attempt to learn his identity.  On learning of this her jealous sisters encourage her to expose his real identity.  

Exposed, Cupid flees and the long journey to being reunited and eventually marry as equals continues.  

The image above is from the first thread of the series and attempts to reconnect the viewer with the ancient and classical roots of Cupid and Psyche.

Figure stock is from the public domain and was retrieved from Wikimedia Commons
Textures by NinjaRabbit-Stock