Power. Status. Beauty. The pursuit of these desirable qualities transcends time and culture, and has coloured much of history. In The Stars Know My Name, works from leading multi-disciplinary artist Darren Sylvester are contrasted against a selection of ancient-inspired bronze helmets from the Hellenic Museum collection.

 

Based on cosmetic beauty masks and the mythical Fountain of Youth – an idea alluded to by the Greek chronicler Herodotus in the 5th Century BCE – Sylvester’s polished bronze sculptures speak to an unrelenting, hyper-capitalised world of beauty, youth and status as social currency. Their fluid forms and polished surfaces evoke this enduring allure of eternal beauty and the excess of modern consumerism.

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In the past, the helmets of the ancient Greek hoplites were tools of self-preservation, protecting flesh from battle. Before they were tarnished by war and time, they too were polished bronze; symbols of the glory attributed to warriors and the archetypal heroes to which they aspired, whose stories were immortalised in the stars.

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Though worlds apart, these objects share the same concern for reputation and mortality. Together, this contrasting display illustrates a universal story of human desire – not only for longevity, but power and status, in whatever form they may take.