Virtue of the Rose
by Sonja van Kerkhoff, 1992 - 3
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'Virtu' is the old English form of the word virtue, and means the personal characteristics that give a person stature. I found it interesting that the word 'Virtue' now has the association of the (passively inherent) ideal or untarnished. The rose is often portrayed as a symbol of ideal love, and I put the two ideas together, and in a sense anthropomorphised the rose by placing words over the image that are traits of human (perhaps ideal) character.
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Another version with a layer of glass and perspex which shows reflections on the rose in this photo.
Left: Another version, without the texts in the print. 18 x 20 x 4 cm. |
Detail of the centre of yet another version, where below you can faintly see the engraved text in the painted wooden frame. (NB: The horizontal line is the reflection of the bottom of the frame) |
I was examining the associations between what we call an 'ideal' and what we call a 'characteristic', and in particular
I used the names of the Bahá'í months, such as ' Loftiness', 'Splendour', 'Questions', 'Words', etc, as starting points. Our months, each nineteen days long, are also attributes for the divine. I took these words, changed some, added some others and placed them over the image of an open rose. The rose is a symbol of ideal love and for me, a fitting symbol for the divine, because in the Bahá'í writings, 'love' is repeatedly stated as the source of all things. It is 'love' that attracts, and 'love' that inspires. Bahá'u'lláh wrote that his first counsel for us is to "Possess a pure kindly and radiant heart". I engraved the text "Virtue of the rose" into the deep frame to literally imbed it in the frame.
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the medium |  | c.v. last things first |