Cassandra Minus One

Cassandra Minus One takes liberties with pillars in the style of Mycenaean illustrations, contrasted with a floor and ceiling in rigid perspective surrounding a motif that represents the princess/priestess/clairvoyant Cassandra. The painting suggests both her temple in Troy but also the threshold in Mycenae that led to her fate. The work is playful, intentionally painterly and untidy suggesting old, unstable surfaces and images pilfered from ceramics. It exaggerates the insecurity of the wobbly columns but also emphasising the threatening threshold and liminal space. Light on dark “drawing” was prompted by Athenian ceramics.

Note. Cassandra, a daughter of King Priam, was the prophetess who foretold the fall of Troy. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but, as she rejected him, he cursed her so that nobody would believe her.

After the fall of Troy, she was taken as a concubine by Agamemnon and, with him, she was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra.