Re-Konstruct Color Collection 2006. Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the Greek Goddess of love, lust and beauty. She was one of twelve Olympian deities, and she was also known as Kypris and Cytherea after the names of the two places that claimed her birth. Aphrodite is associated with the Myrtle, dove, turtle and swan and all are sacred to her.

The Greek goddess has various equivalents and has parallels to Indo – European dawn goddesses such as Aurora and Ushas.

Born from the sea, emerging from Thalassa Aphrodite was born from the foam that appeared after Cronus cut off Uranus’ testicles and threw them into the sea.

Aphrodite had no childhood, and emerged from the sea as a nubile beautiful young woman, the most desirable thing to mankind. Born from man she was a fathers “daughter” and found companionship among males. She was adored by almost every man, but many women were intimidated and punished by Aphrodite and Aphrodite often persecuted women that she felt threatened by.

Aphrodite is often associated with pure love. However she had more to do with the irrational love of lust. She was a powerful and violent force and not always a gentle desirable character. I think that the combination of violence and tenderness found in the character of Aphrodite is a realisistic personification of the feelings that are experienced when in love.

I used very warm and energetic colours to express the power and energy that Aphrodite carried with her and entrenched on others. The patterns are very lively and suggest movement as Aphrodite is a character who stimulated and was present in many people at one time.