Enlil & Ninlil | Victoria Olt

2020

Gouache and handmade watercolor on paper.

18 x 24 in
46 x 61 cm + frame included for free in shipments within Estonia

} Enlil & Ninlil {

The Ancient Sumerian story story starts when Ninlil decides to go to bathe in the river, her mother forbids her to as she doesn’t want her daughter to go alone, but she goes anyway. There she meets the God Enlil, who rapes her. When Ninlil returns home the next morning pregnant, her mother is furious and Enlil is banished to the underworld. But Ninlil misses Enlil and pursues him to the underworld. They make up and decide to stay together and she soon gives birth to Nanna, who is as beautiful as the sun but colder. When she grows up she becomes the goddess of the moon. This story represents the life cycle of crops, from pollination to their withering and eventual return to earth. This story is also considered a coming of age tale.

“The exhibition “Lost Gods” is another step in my quest for meaning, where, after finding no solace in current popular religion, I turn my gaze towards the past, to see what can be learned there. And what I’ve found is that a lot of the issues our ancestors struggled with, are the same issues we have yet to resolve today. We still live at the whim of fate, however you define it. But our ancestors still have fascinating things to say about the human condition, and we would be wise to learn from them.”

-Victoria