Scripted on water, 2012

The understanding of our oneness with nature

forms the ebb and flow of our journey.

Time, for us, is scripted on water. The sea calls us.

We commit to its undulating expanse and imagine.

 

This composition of paintings and installation objects draws its inspiration from the original myth of the Phoenician princess Europa, sister of Phoenix, who was abducted to Crete

from Lebanon's shores by Zeus, who, in the shape of a bull, took her through the open sea. Revisiting the timeless dynamics of the relations between orient and occident allowed for the unfolding of our common humanity. A loofah-dress serves as texture for the inner psychological and mental structure as "externalized skin" and the materials used for these themes like salt, henna, wax, sand and horn relate to the presence of their history still with us today. This approach refers to Gaston Bachelard's idea of cultural evolution as the reinterpretation of myths.

Cornelia Krafft

 

By painting driftwood I try to animate the inanimate by evoking the presence of beings. In some cases, these are analogues of familiar animals, both real and mythical; in others, fragments of

landscape may appear. To me the journey of the wood from earth to water to earth again in a transformed state is not unlike that of our consciousness as we realize the interdependence of each creature in nature. The finished pieces reveal them- selves slowly, in layers of understanding. Together they form a multi-part entity yet separately each stands alone.

Afaf Zurayk