The video, Styx (Sticks),
The intention of the video Styx (Sticks) was to draw parallels between the destruction and loss of the Ancient Kauri forests in Aotearoa, and the five underworld rivers represented in Greek Mythology as metaphors for death, grief and mourning: Styx, Acheron, Cocytus, Phlegethon and Lethe.
The sculpture Raft personifies the spirit of loss and transcendence. Styx: The first and most feared of the five rivers, represented death and the threshold between living and dying: the image of the solitary rowing figure, symbolizing loss, realization, horror, devastation. Acheron: The icy river and waterfall in Arcadia, cold, shock, sorrow, frozen emotion: ice, sounds of flax seeds falling on ice symbolizing frozen tears Cocytus: The river of wailing: alluding to the sound of the devastation of the bush, the torrent, destruction, sounds of wailing and the sound of saw cuts. Phlegethon: The funeral pyre: fire, razing of the land, burning of the bush. Lethe: The river of oblivion, moving on, but with an altered perception due to loss, bird calls, new plantations but this time over cleared hills and with images of pine tree plantations.
‘In Raft, Styx (Sticks) it is the journey of the soul to the land of the dead, but also the death of the land, that is foregrounded, the journey of culture toward the death of nature. Virginia King’s works identify themselves with the cause of ecology and environmental ethics. A conscious biomorphism proclaims the splendour of generative nature. The harmonious balance of the elements, of material existence, has in all cultures been a metaphor for spiritual life.’
Paul Judge, ‘Tideline, A ten year survey’, 1999.
Greatful thanks to Nikki Baigent, film maker, for her work on Passage and Styx (Sticks).