645 | 11.16

"Oracle", by Michael Ayrton

"Oracle (conceived in 1963-4) is related to Ayrton's depictions of the Pythia, in which the tripod on which she sat, becomes part of the figure itself, and Oracle, has therefore become eternally immovable, rooted to her spot, and forever prophesizing the changing seasons. 'The Minotaur evolved towards a human condition, the Oracle moved away from it towards a series of inhuman images in which her being became concentrated upon containing the prophetic voice of the god. She was to me continually and variously transformed until, irrationally, she has become identified first with the goddess Demeter, then with both Demeter and her daughter Kore, who takes the name of Persephone when she goes into the earth each winter and emerges in the spring. The Oracle exists to confirm what is already known, by prophecy. Transformed into Demeter and her daughter she confirms the changing seasons and the perpetual passage of youth into age which is what we know' "

Jerwood Sculpture Park, Ragley

Thursday 4th May 2006


	"Oracle", by Michael Ayrton "Oracle (conceived in 1963-4) is related to Ayrton's depictions of the Pythia, in which the tripod on which she sat, becomes part of the figure itself, and Oracle, has therefore become eternally immovable, rooted to her spot, and forever prophesizing the changing seasons. 'The Minotaur evolved towards a human condition, the Oracle moved away from it towards a series of inhuman images in which her being became concentrated upon containing the prophetic voice of the god. She was to me continually and variously transformed until, irrationally, she has become identified first with the goddess Demeter, then with both Demeter and her daughter Kore, who takes the name of Persephone when she goes into the earth each winter and emerges in the spring. The Oracle exists to confirm what is already known, by prophecy. Transformed into Demeter and her daughter she confirms the changing seasons and the perpetual passage of youth into age which is what we know' " Jerwood Sculpture Park, Ragley Thursday 4th May 2006
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