Kora vs Persephone
2025
reclaimed fabrics, embroidery floss, threads, painting loom
45 × 45 cm, tondo

The self-portrait is composed in reference to Renaissance profile portraits such as the diptych by Diptych of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza from the Uffizi Gallery, commissioned by Federico da Montefeltro. I quote this form deliberately — as a language of power, representation, and control.

The figure maintains the calm typical of Renaissance portraiture, yet her profile is not filled in — it remains only a contour. Through the silhouette, a landscape of cultivated fields becomes visible. This is a terrain associated with the myth of Persephone and Kore — a story of abduction, descent into the underworld, and cyclical return. The Greek narrative has an earlier counterpart in the myth of Inanna, who descends below to die and be reborn.

The “vs” does not signify a confrontation, but a split. Girl and ruler. Loss and agency.

This is an attempt to capture the moment in which identity fractures in order to transform. I am interested in female initiation as an experience of descent — not only of loss, but also of the emergence of inner strength.