Danaë # 4

This painting is part of continuing work that plays with the paradoxical practice of visualising the impossible which painting reveals. It dissolves the familiar narrative, the solidified metaphor, opening up other meanings and feelings. The Danaë series tackles the iniquitous narrative in which she is incarcerated in an impenetrable bronze chamber by her father but nevertheless is impregnated by Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold. Art of the past has relished the story and most, like Titian’s wonderful and languorous “Danaë” paintings, offer a passive female subject position. Alternatively I suggest that she has a more active role in the encounter. Also about painting itself, the Danaë series became hotter and looser as it developed. I have chosen this painting to represent my work for International Women's Day 2015. www.internationalwomensday.com/susanbanks