The Moirai
About five years ago, I started dabbling into mythological studies, and I got hooked. A completely new world opened up before my eyes as if I had finally awakened.
Today I have an endless pile of books from Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, Gilbert Durand, Carl Jung, Albert Camus, Arthur Schopenhauer, and many other philosophers, psychoanalysts, poets, journalists... Those books will keep me be busy for more than a lifetime.
The Moirai are the three Greek goddesses of Fate who personified the inescapable destiny of humans. Clotho is responsible for spinning the thread of life and deciding when/where an individual will be born; Lachesis measures the thread and determines how long the life span will be; and Atropos cuts it, defining the moment of death.
I created The Moirai triptych artwork as part of my 2019 solo exhibition Homo Narrans that took place at The Jung Center Houston. The thread of life is represented as a chain, suggesting that human existence is constrained by uncontrolled events. We are creatures enchained by time and space, and only death will liberate us.
During the exhibition at The Jung Center, I installed the triptych connected to a skull with the words "Be" and "Imagine" written on its forehead. Those are references to the works Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and Les Structures Anthropologiques de l'Imaginaire by Gilbert Durand.
Take a look at the picture with the installation and try to answer the following questions:
Why is the word “Be” crossed?
Usually, the Moirai are depicted as older women. Why not here?
Have you ever spent some time thinking about your death?
This year of 2020 is forcing us to reflect upon our losses, and we should learn how to mourn it instead of distracting ourselves with constant movies/parties/.../noise as a way to escape the inevitable pain that emerges when facing the truth. Because after conquering this phase, life becomes lighter, and we will finally be able to defy death by embracing the eternity revealed in the present.
I would love to read your impressions about this subject. You can either leave a comment here or send me an email.
The original artwork is available through the link below: