HYPNOS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hypnos, the Latin  Somnus, was the Graeco-Roman god of sleep. His twin was Thanatos (Death); their mother was the goddess Nyx (Night). Hypnos is variously described by Virgil (Aeneid), Ovid (Metamorphoses) and Homer (Iliad) as living in the underworld, in the land of the Cimmerians, or in a dark cave on the island of Lemnos bathed by the waters of Lethe (Forgetfulness). Hypnos’s children were the bringers of dreams. The most important were Morpheus, who brought dreams of men; Icelus, who brought dreams of animals; and Phantasus, who brought dreams of inanimate things.

All are at work in this body of photographs, where darkness, opacity and liquidity are associated with sleep, and light, transparency and solidity, with wakefulness. The protagonists of the images are the naturally occurring volcanic glass, obsidian, quarried on the Tyrrhenian island of Lipari, and crystal forged in the Tuscan village of Colle di Val d’Elsa.

 

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Hypnos English

 

 

 

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