Quartz Studio is pleased to present The Death of the Pythia, the second solo show in Turin by the British artist Delaine Le Bas (Worthing, UK, 1965). “The Death of the Pythia” is the title of an irreverent story by the Swiss writer (and painter) Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Published in 1976, its main character, Pannychis XI, the priestess of Delphi, “tall and thin like almost all the Pythias that came before her,” reveals the true purpose of her prophesying: to mock her faithful, displaying their vacuous credulity.

The Pythia’s character is clearly defined in the classical myth and humorously interpreted by Dürrenmatt. She fits perfectly in the repertoire of female figures that Le Bas has gathered over the years. On the occasion of Artissima 2024, like the Pythias prophesying in the limestone cave of the sanctuary of Delphi in Greece, Le Bas, an English artist of Romani origins, has installed artworks made of different materials in Quartz Studio in Turin, using enigmatic words and original colourful figures that attract and inspire questions from those who cross the threshold of the space/sanctuary. The artist says, “The works are painted on cotton organdie. I made paintings with acrylic paint on three-meter-long, room-size fabrics. The subjects are the merging of figures created with an “exquisite corpse” technique, conceived based on my historical and recent works. They are effectively transformations over time of the visual archipelago in which I am immersed. In contrast, I decided to also present several small watercolors on paper.”

As she has in recent exhibitions, such as her participation in the final selection of the Turner Prize 2024, for her solo show at Quartz Studio, she draws in part from the wealth of imagery from her own artistic archive. With a notably feminist approach, she emphasizes the culture’s matriarchal orientation, while delivering an existentialist message much like that of the Pythia in Dürrenmatt’s story. Western civilization’s belief that the world is an ordered, perfectible system determined by our actions is an assumption completely undermined by current and historical events. Nonetheless, Le Bas and her vibrant microcosm of chaos seem to benevolently suggest for us an alternative to contemporary nihilism, becoming priests of the secular religion of images and small objects and entrusting ourselves to the miraculous tales they bear.

RE-CALLING
RE-MEMBERING
RE-CLAIMING
I SAT WRAPPED IN GLYPHS
OF ANOTHER TIME
GREEN IN BLACK
FRINGED
SMOKED CRYSTAL AROUND MY WRIST
A LINE OF SORTS
LIKE THE LINE HORIZONTAL TO THE SUN
OR EYES OF THE SERPENT
FROM WHOM I MAY BE NAMED
STARING OUT INTO THE MIST
WHERE LIGHT EMERGES
SHADOWS HIDE
HEAT COMES FORTH
A CONDUIT
HERE
NOW
STANDING ON CHEQUERED SKIN
HELD IN WHITE WALLS
VISIBLE YET INVISIBLE
THROUGH SUBSTANCES ONCE SAND
DID WE NOT SAY ONCE
“I KNOW THE NUMBER OF THE SAND AND THE MEASURE OF THE SEA”
I TRAVELLED FAR TO GET HERE
NAMED AFTER THE SERPENT
SO DESPISED IN THIS WORLD
LIKE MYSELF
LIKE ALL WHO REFUSE CONTROL OR INFLUENCE
BY BE-ING
BY BE-ING
AS GAEA
CALLS
CAN YOU HEAR HER?
IN PRESENT TIMES WE CAN BE FOUND IN PARIS
FORMED BY THE HANDS OF A SISTER
BUT SILENCED IN BRONZE
IN CLAY I HAD BEEN BE-ING
FLESH OF GAEA
MY MOTHER
CONNECTED
ONCE IN FLUID
REMEMBER
WHEN NERO
CONSUMED ME BY FLAMES
FOR WORDS HE WISHED NOT TO HEAR
HE PERISHED
EXTINGUISH TRUTH
THERE WILL BE A COST
I CREATED BEAUTY FROM FRAYS
NOT AFFRAY
LOOSE AT THE EDGES
NOT CONTAINED
LIKE
ZIGEUNER SAUCE
WHO SEES THROUGH
THE LINGUISTIC ENGINEERING
“WORD SALADS’
NOTE TO SELF

CHANGE LANGUAGE
CONTINUE
UN-PAINTING
WE
THE PYTHIA’S
SPEAK AGAIN
BUT LIKE NERO
WILL THEY CONSUME US WITH FLAMES
TO SILENCE VOICES
THAT WILL TRAVEL
BEYOND THIS TIME
RE-CALLING
RE-MEMBERING
RE-CLAIMING