Nicolas Aubagnac
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PERSEPHONE
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DIVINE MYTHOLOGY
Persephone, goddess of germination
It all started with this sprig of borage picked from the garden that I was holding in my hand and which suddenly entered a ray of sunlight…
The plant shimmered with light and transformed into a veritable magical talisman. I immediately wanted to immortalize this divine moment with a photograph.
Thanks to the resources of tapestry, this small sprig of borage has changed scale to become a totem, and the rich weaving combinations we have developed have created a very theatrical augmented reality effect.
The totem seems to emerge from the darkness and radiate light.
It becomes a parable of spring, of the renewal of nature after the great winter sleep, of life's resurgence over death.
This is the whole story of Persephone, the Greek goddess of germination…trapped by Hades, the god of the dead, and forced to remain underground, to the detriment of humanity, suddenly deprived of the fruits of nature.
The story continues a little further on…
L = 45.25 in | H = 59 in
One tapestry can hide another…
On the reverse side of this tapestry, I had an excerpt from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter woven…
This is an archaic text from ancient Greece, falsely attributed to Homer, which recounts Demeter's anguish at the abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades, the god of the dead. She pleads her case before Zeus, the king of the gods, who then pronounces this judgment:
Persephone will spend part of the year with her husband in the subterranean realm of the dead, then she will return to the surface to join Olympus, to honor the other gods with her presence and above all, to ensure the germination of all the seeds that allow nature to exist and nourish human beings… This is how the cycle of the seasons is explained.
“You will return to the depths of the earth and remain there for a third of the year, and for the other two thirds, you will remain with me and the Immortals. And when the earth is adorned with all the fragrant flowers of spring, then you will rise again from the thick darkness, like a great wonder for the Gods and mortal men.”
