Alison Saar, Equinox (2012); Equinox (2008).

[Equinox (2012)] is two lithographs hand-sewn together with red thread with an added collage element that hovers off the surface. The theme is taken from Greek mythology: Demeter, the goddess of the harvest stands upright on a groundline and is mirrored by her daughter below, Persephone, the goddess of the underworld. The stitching that links the two together is just below the ground line. Demeter is black against a blue background; she holds her breasts and milk flows in dual tributaries toward the ground. Persephone is upside down, white against a red background and attached to her mother by her feet. Persephone’s breasts are replaced by bunches of grapes and wine flows instead of milk. The collage element is the web of intermingling white milk and red wine. In her lecture, Saar revealed that she made this print shortly after her daughter left home for college. It bears noting that Saar is also the daughter of the artist, Betye Saar; she bears her mother’s legacy just as her daughter bears hers. So while this is a retelling of a Greek myth, it also is a meditation on the relationship between mothers and daughters, on separation and interconnectedness, perhaps even inescapability.