AnnabelMacIver

Progress?​

​

Time passes, often unnoticed, and we assume that with this we progress; yet ancient myths seem as relevant today as they ever were. The underlying assumption being that although technology has advanced our way of life beyond all expectations, the basics of what it is to be human remain the same. However, these myths were generally all written by men, are from the male perspective which has discounted the narrative of 50% of the population who have lived on earth. The portrayal of these Goddesses in art history, again invariably by male artists, have also often been very one dimensional.With the recent rise of works by female authors ther has been a reappraisal, and questions as to why female protagonists may have behaved the way they did.

Starting with the Greek myth Circe, and referencing the book of the same name by Madeleine Miller, Annabel has sought to reassess the way in which this goddess has been portrayed in art through a series of etchings, all hand drawn using a variety of techniques, notably etching, aquatint and open bite. Often using quotes from lines in Miller’s book for titles. There are currently 8 in the portfolio, with a potential for at least 12. Four of the most significant are displayed in the RCA summer show 2025. Layered over this is a consideration about what it means to be human through various abstract images using collagraph and screenprint.

The grid over which all images are laid, gives a sense of the continuum of time and order, over which the layers of our messy lives and societies fall.

The further addition of 3D printed ceramics briefly considers technological progress and by using the same 3D scan of an amphora in the Musee St Raymond, Toulouse, she has sought to reproduce a Greek Ampohora using current technology. This has not been as easy as initially thought: whereas the scan and input data remained a constant (with only proportional variations to the size of the pot), external variables such as clay consistency, temperature, speed of extrusion, added to create many multiples with varied success. At this stage she still has not been able to fully recreate the pot, but the quest continues. Most are decorated with a nod to the works by the Ancient Greeks, most notably the Berlin Painter, but others purely highlight the errors within production.

A small pamphlet continues the dialogue with technology, outlining a brief discussion with the AI platforms Chat GPT and DeepSeek around how life has changed for women in the world since Ancient Greek times.

​

​