Chapter 06 / 06 · 1950–present
Kore
Our Hopes for Our Children
Modern Greece
The person behind the portrait
Sofia Petrides posed for Kore in 2022, when she was twelve. The portrait closes the family’s four-generation story by looking toward the life of a child.
The ancient Greek word kore can mean both a young woman and a daughter. Here it becomes the title of a particular person’s portrait, carrying a parent’s hope that the next generation can live more freely.
Artwork details and materials
- Reference
- HH·06
- Model
- Sofia Petrides
- In the family
- Daughter, who posed in 2022 at age 12
- Themes
- Hope, individuality, and the future
- Sculptural precedent
- Kore 684 (about 490 BC); Acropolis Museum, Athens
- Completed
- 2024 · Version II
- Medium
- Mixed media: a 3D-printed recycled PETG body, epoxy clay, metal powders applied with resin and catalyst, pigments, acids, and a protective topcoat.
- Dimensions
- 75 × 57 cm, height × diameter
The date identifies the version shown. The exhibition began touring in 2022.
Views and surface details
Select an image to see it in full.
The films
Films retain their original audio. Where YouTube supplies captions, use the CC control. The text on this page introduces the sculpture and its historical setting.
History and inspiration
After occupation and civil war, Greece rebuilt through migration, urban growth, and profound political and social change. The restoration of democracy in 1974 and European integration reshaped the country, while economic crises and new migration continued to test it.
Kore places the next generation within this unfinished story. The portrait looks ahead without asking a child to carry all the burdens of the past.
Read the full catalog chapter (English)The artist’s words (English)
"We have all worked hard to create a different foundation for my daughter, age 12 at the time of posing, to build on—a safer one, emotionally and physically. She knows the broad outline of the family story but is not asked to carry everyone else’s unresolved pain.
As to the sculpture, it is inspired by an ancient Greek Kore, one of the full-size sculptures of Athenian maidens. My sculpture has a distinctly different emotion and sculptural style than the prior five sculptures. Her expression is, I believe, one of innocence, intelligence, optimism, and a tiny bit of a smirk. Not burdened.
Perhaps the cumulative work by my parents and later by me has succeeded.
As a public sculpture, Kore’s optimism has been welcomed in two important institutions around the world, outside of the exhibition."
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