LAST FRIDAY at the Town Hall saw the opening of a striking new exhibition by artist Ruth Cadden entitled Seductive Mythology.
The works draw their inspiration from Greek myth and are delightfully lively, playful, and erotic. There are three series of works which engage, respectively, with the myths of Europa and Zeus, Pasiphae and the Bull, and the Sirens.
In the Europa and Zeus series, Zeus has taken on the form of a bull to seduce Princess Europa and wooes her by lolling about with the gentle playfulness of a kitten, rolling on his back, licking his hooves or resting his head in her lap.
Pasiphae and the Bull portrays the drama of the Cretan queen who conceived an unnatural lust for a bull and had a sexual union with him from which there was born the man-beast Minotaur. Cadden’s Pasiphae is shown posing flirtatiously and canoodling with the bull, in images that combine palpable sensuality with a vein of wry humour.
The Sirens she depicts as half-women, half-heron. Humour is present here also, as in the image of the three sirens draped across an upright piano, gazing piningly out to sea. While the Sirens in myth are dangerous seductresses, luring sailors to their doom, Cadden’s Sirens possess a touching measure of lonesomeness and aching desire.
So what drew Cadden to this material? “When I was in college I was always doing figurative stuff either with animals or humans then I discovered the hybrid, half-animal-half-human when I went into Greek mythology and started to read about the Minotaur and stuff like that,” she explains.
“My thesis was based around the hybrid and I started to learn more about different stories and became interested in Greek mythology in particular. When I was in Kinsale because of all the beautiful herons that were around and I was feeling a bit lonely so I related to the Sirens, it all has to do with where I am, the stories that I am attracted to.
“I like to show a bit of the sinister side of the myths as well but in a humorous way, I think it has to be coated with a nice bit of humour so it’s easier for the viewer to get into it and it doesn’t seem too much of a severe statement.”
The exhibition was opened by the Galway Advertiser’s Ronnie O’Gorman who said: “Ruth has chosen three myths that explore the Greek struggle to explain human nature and its power for erotic love,” and went on to observe that “the eroticism and sensuality of these drawing is superb. The lines are absolutely magnificent, there isn’t a wasted line in any of these drawings.”
Seductive Mythology continues at the Town Hall for the rest of the month and is well worth a viewing. More of Ruth’s work can also be seen at www.ruthcadden.co.uk
