Flowers of the Stone

“Flowers of the Stone” is a collection of twelve “Prosopa” on Parian Marble.

Anemone

Plethoric and colorful.
She stays always enigmatic.
She promises through her expression
a heartbreaking confession…
But her voice never comes out…
Only that “tempest in the lips”..
Elytis
As the flower ‘Anthemis'
covers with such simplicity and generosity
the verandas of our homes,
so the simple person finds happiness
in simple everyday things.
She beautifies our life with her presence,
because finally… “the world is simple”.

Anthemis – Collection of Dino Leventis, London

“Humanity does not need a lot, to be calm and without malice, A little bread, a little wine Christmas and Easter”.
Elytis

Arabidopsis

She has vivid eastern characteristics.
The hint of her smile disappears,
while you walk
from left to right.
The impression
of the shy, covered figure
is balanced by the elegance of her face
and hair.
The earring (pomegranate)
quietly applies to fertility, motherhood
and immortality.

Asphodele

Flowers of the rock facing the green sea
With veins that reminded me of other loves
Glowing in the slow fine rain,
Flowers of the rock, figures
That came when no one spoke and spoke to me
That let me touch them
after the silence
among pine-trees, eleanders
and plane-trees
Seferis, trans. by E. Keely & P. Sherrard

Calystegia – Office of the mayor of Paros

Finding consolation
in the protective look
of the one who loves us,
we experience him/her
as a "tree full of green branches,
under which many people rest in the shade
Akathistos Hymn

Helianthemus

Helianthemus
(the sunflower)
always turns towards
the sun.
It is an orientation
which defines his life
and his existence.
It is so absolute
that it reminds us the verses
of the poet Sarantaris:
"..From the one
to the One
it was one jump only
and I have made it".

Helichrisus – Library of Mourston House, England

"For human beings, ethos is God"
Heracleitus
Helichrysus incarnates the ideal of 'sanctity'.
He is the graceful and 'sun bearing' man.

Hyacinth

"Axion Esti
The light and the first wish of the
human
Sculpted on the rock"
Elytis

Iris

Always open,
Always sleepless
The eyes of my psyche.
Solomos

Narcissus

All the grace of the world
can be encapsulated
and be expressed in the human
"prosvpo".
By this way, his presence as
"icon of God's inexpressible glory"
is justified.

Stachys – Chios Maritime collection

Even if the wind blows hard
It cannot scare us.
The wind may blow threatening.
But Stahys
is rather enjoying it,
with his hair
dancing in the air.
Thank God,
Our world is tough.

Nymphaea – Dr. Apostolos Polizoides collection

"Girls, The Saplings of Utopia..
The vases of mystery,
Which are full to the brim and bottomless"

Elytis

Flowers of the Stone” is a collection of twelve “Prosopa” on Parian Marble.

The Parian Marble is the divine element, which comes out of the heart of the Greek Island Paros and has given substance to the most exciting sculptures of Greek Antiquity. The Cycladic Idols, the Elgin Marbles, Aphrodite of Melos, Hermes of Praxitelis are some of the many masterpieces made from Parian Marble, also known as Lychnites due to its smoothness and transparency.

The ancient marble quarry of Marathi supplied famous Parian Sculptors with marble for more than 27 centuries, from the Geometric period up to the end of Byzantium, when probably it ran out of its fine quality. However, even during the last century it produced the marble of Napoleon’s tomb.

The sculptors of the classical antiquity used to do a part of their curving down there, into the dark underground galleries of the quarry, by the light of the candle (Lychnos), in order to make the mass of the marble lighter and easier for transportation to the surface, where they completed their work. So, they left a certain quantity of “latepes,” small pieces of this precious element, inside the galleries and around the quarry.

These pieces were for me a great challenge. The process of finding them and collecting them was by itself a rich journey through history. Handling them with the proper love and respect permitted me, day by day, to explore the force, which was hidden inside of them for centuries. These small pieces did not serve me as elements in order to illustrate on them a real or a mythical character, which I had in mind. They rather stood as individuals, possessing the power to challenge my individuality to move towards them and transform them both of us into “Prosopa.”

The individual stands before the individuality of the others, their face, and is able to reach them, to love them, to share life with them, when he is able to step out of his atomocentric barriers. In that he becomes a person, he becomes “Prosopa.”

That is why these 12 faces are constantly changing their expressions as the light reflects on them from a moving source – whether it is the sun, the moon or the light of your eyes and your heart. In this sense they not only overpass the limitations of space and time, ethnic or cultural differences, but they propose the personal dimension of the human being as a way of approaching, communicating, sharing and celebrating life.

The name of my collection “Flowers of the Stone” derives from the following poem of the Nobelist George Seferis, where he reflects the same experience:

Flowers of the rock, figures
that came when no own spoke
and spoke to me
that let me touch them
after the silence
among pine trees, oleanders
and plane-trees.

Aristides Varrias