My painting installation explores our relationship with nature through Greek mythology and the sculptural tradition of the Italian Renaissance. Myths and art history tell us about the significance of the natural environment for human existence and identity – a perspective that is increasingly relevant in the face of accelerating deforestation and biodiversity loss. The installation consists of works painted with acrylics on thin paper and wide enough to cover entire walls. 

At the heart of the installation, on a large partition wall, is my interpretation of a dryad, a guardian spirit of trees from Greek mythology. My interpretation is strongly influenced by the sculpture created by Giambologna in the 1580s for the Medici family (Colosso dell’Appennino in Parco Mediceo di Pratolino). The 14-meter colossus is a personification of the mountains, protecting the landscape alongside the trees. Similarly, I wanted my dryad to blend organically into the landscape. However, the closer you examine the painting, the more figures you can distinguish. 

Under the protective gaze of the dryad, the gallery’s long side walls feature 16-meter-wide paintings, abstractions of forest landscapes reflected in water. The work at the back of the gallery, on the other side of the partition wall, is a symbolic interpretation of our national flag, in which the cross cutting through the landscape poses a question, as if evoked by clear-cutting, as to whether forest landscapes can survive.

Myths and art history convey age-old stories about nature’s importance to humans. Science has also offered a perspective on this co-existence by showing that humans and plants share about one-quarter of their genetic makeup. As a visual artist, the story conveyed by my works is non-verbal, but I hope that they not only offer esthetic experiences but also inspire viewers to reflect on their current relationship with natural environments. Dryads need human help in both urban and rural areas.

I have painted my works so that their surfaces resemble an organic web, as if the veins of a leaf. My distinctive painting style arises from a process in which, after numerous layers of paint, the thin paper almost merges into the paint. Layers created by tearing and gluing further enhance the optical depth of the works.