Ministers of Fate

3 - 24 July 2020
The Miracle Room
Featherston

This exhibition explores the idea of fate – do you believe in fate and can you control it?

The Fates of classical Greek mythology are three goddesses who work together weaving people’s destinies. Each of the three Fates has a different task: Clotho spins the thread of life, Lachesis measures its length, and Atropos cuts it off with her shears. They have enormous power and no one can recall their decisions, so we never know what fate might have in store for us.

The Red Thread of Fate is from Chinese mythology and is an invisible red cord tied to the fingers of people destined to meet each other. Yuè Lǎo, the matchmaking deity, is in charge of the red thread so it can have soulmate overtones. The thread can get tangled into knots, but it can never be cut or broken, even if your scissors are really sharp.

The imperfect lines that draw the shape of you may be more powerful than Fate.

All that explains why red and the number three features heavily in my recent drawings - a nod to the various Fates weaving and connecting our fortunes. My characters sometimes gaze off the page and look right at you though, inviting you to think, ah, maybe that person isn’t buying into this whole Fate thing at all. Maybe you can stare Fate down, choose your own experiences, make your own connections! Maybe we don’t have to leave the heavy lifting to Fate.

Keep an eye out for red threads tucked into the drawings too. And ask yourself: Does that thread thing really work? The person you are destined to meet could be wearing a mask, leaving you to wonder if the thread is just pulling your chain.