Muse ΜΝΗΜΗΝ Sculpture

Objects used: Moulin-Legumes food mill, egg separator, chalk line reel, pizza cutter disk, icing piping nozzle, Eclipse piercing saw frame, trigger lobster clasp, brass lamp-holder component, copper wire, wood, enamel paint. This assemblage is based on one of the Muses that punished the singer Thamyris by depriving him of his voice, his memory, and his skill in playing his instrument. Muse ΜΝΗΜΗΝ represents Memory. In the invocation of the Muses at the outset of the Iliadic Catalogue of Ships the poet describes how the Muses are always present when things occur and so know everything, as opposed to the singer, whose knowledge is wholly reliant on the Muses sharing their recollections. The Muse is represented by means of a food mill, an egg separator, a chalk line reel and a depiction of a circular labyrinth found on ancient Greek ‘Knossos’ coins. ΜΝΗΜΗΝ serves here as an epithet of this Muse and refers to a remembrance, a record, a monument, an epitaph, a reference to something, or a power of the mind. This work forms part of a series of nine sculptures entitled "Powell's Patterns 2, 11, 20, 25", which is a sculptural exploration of four contingents from the list of combatants in Homer’s Iliad. Superficially, the only link between these four catalogue entries are structural similarities first identified by the scholar Barry Powell. The sculptural series explores thematic links between these entries.