On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.

 

To date, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have lost their lives, many thousands of civilian injuries have been reported, and over 13 million Ukrainians have been displaced.

​

The ongoing destruction continues to be unimaginable. Both cities and farmland are being destroyed, with wheat fields, threatened by shelling and landmines, becoming uncultivable.

​

Zhyttya in Ukranian means life. Wheat is the basic foodstuff synonymous with life. Ukraine and Russia together supply between a quarter and a third of the world's wheat. Despite efforts to address the cultivation and transport of grain, the UN estimates that as many as 50 million people in 45 countries are still on the brink of famine.

 

In ancient times, in the most climactic moment of the Eleusinian mysteries, a single grain of wheat was displayed for contemplation in complete silence before it was planted/ buried. Referencing Demeter and Persephone, the eternal cycle of the seasons, similar imagery undergirds the Christian Eucharist.

 

In this sculpture, stalks of golden wheat sprout from a white nesting column, decorated with carvings of acanthus leaves, which Vitruvius posited as having grown up around a basket placed on Persephone's grave. Much like kudzu in our area, acanthus refuses to die. It returns every spring with a vengeance.

 

Can we hope that Demeter will be reunited with her daughter in the breadbasket of Europe?