I just completed the fourth and fifth paintings of the Origin of Love series - It is high time to tell you what it's all about.
Origin of Love is inspired by Plato’s Symposium. This Greek myth, although written c. 2,400 years ago, has lost none of its relevance. For me it’s the most charming explanation of why people fall in love. It starts like this: In primal times humans were round, with four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, their backs and sides forming a circle. They could walk upright as humans do now, backwards or forwards as they pleased, and they could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on their four hands and four feet, eight in all. There were three sexes: Female, male, and half female and half male, whole and in harmony with themselves. |
| Mighty and strong as they were they defied the gods and attacked the Olympus. Angry Zeus devised to cut them into two, in effect separating the two bodies. After that, these separated human beings longed for their other half so much that they searched for it over and over. |
As a result, they started dying from hunger and self-neglect. So Zeus took pity and moved their genitals to the front so that they could obtain satisfaction and move on. Ever since that time, people are looking for their other half - that other, original part of themselves. This is what constitutes love according to Plato. What does love mean to you? | |