Pandemic Gods – Series

The pandemic has changed us – each in our own way. The series Pandemic Gods establishes a connection between the dramas of the Greek world of Gods and our contemporary perspective. In doing so, it plays multilayered with gender identities and the competition for beauty already thematized in Greek myth.

playing with gender identities

All paintings in the series are based on one and the same bust, which – depending on the decor and angle of view – can appear sometimes male, sometimes female. The artist did not intentionally ascribe a gender identity to the paintings, but allowed the observed light/mood to flow into the brushstrokes.

Whether a person has female or male sexual characteristics is determined by the interaction of diverse factors (gonads, hormones, chromosomes, etc.). Gender identities are nowhere near as clear-cut as the usual societal distinction suggests.

battle for beauty

According to Greek legend, the 3 goddesses Aphrodite, Hera and Athena were protagonists of a beauty contest staged by Eris. However, beauty is individual and cannot be compared. The paintings that are all based on the same bust thus reveal the futility of comparison: would you compare different aspects of the same face to each other?

Marsnahmen occupies a special position within the series: he does not appear in the „Judgment of Paris“ myth. Within the series, however, as a god of war, he symbolizes the struggle that can still be observed today in connection with ideals of beauty and gender identities.