Continuing with the Greek theme, Greek-born artist Kalliopi Lemos has taken over the Gazelli Art House in Mayfair with her exhibition ‘All is to be Dared’ which follows on from her exhibition in 2016 links to the achievement a century ago of women achieving the ability to vote, and the ongoing battle for equality, but also to the hidden dark side to many things of beauty.  Eros, for example, is a god of love, but his arrow cheekily fired at the wrong person can be mischievous, bringing discord and even death as love turns to hate.

The exhibition starts with a room that could be in the British Museum, alongside the metopes from the Parthenon,  but with one major difference -  the figures are all female – and why not?  It does reflect that the battle for equality had been going on for a very long time.  Moving through ribbons of fabric inscribed with verses from the Greek poetess Sappho, who was an inspiration in the 19^th century for woman campaigning for equal rights, the ribbons take on the form of bandages which can on the one hand be healing and medicinal, but can on the other can be suffocating and mummifying.  As you pass through, figures appear -  dark disfigured, distorted relics, their insides open -, perhaps also linking to the classical past and how quickly beauty can be destroyed, before you reach the final installation, a moving work that recognises the suffering of women who, even in the 21^st century, have to keep quiet about what they see and hear, under threat of punishment, imprisonment or even death.  You almost want to rip down the ribbons and wrap the other figures with them.

Lemos describes Sappho’s writings thus: ‘Her immediacy, sincerity and eloquence have established her as the symbol of feminine discourse for almost 3,000 years and I find the surviving fragments of her poems extremely powerful and poignant.  Her humanity, her love for life,, as well as the passion and frustration when desire is not reciprocated, makes one very close to her.’ and the beauty of Sappho’s writing is captured in the book ‘Seven Nocturnal Septets’ on a lecture, like a bible in a church, overlooking the busy streets of Mayfair.