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Jane Alexander, Frontier With Church (2012-2014)

April 20, 2022 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

jane-alexander-installation-figure-with-white-head-and-colorful-vest-on-black-background“In Frontier With Church, the artist makes direct reference to the procession encountered by Dante and Matilda at the summit of Mount Purgatory, interpreted in the temporal contexts of proselytism, migration, and trade, on their way to paradise. With Matilda—who clearly prepares Dante for his meeting with Beatrice—Dante witnesses a procession which forms an allegory within the allegory, somewhat like Shakespeare’s play with a play, in which the characters are walking symbols rather than real people. Alexander’s tableau is thus intended to represent the earthly paradise, a borderline space between earth and divine sanctuary: a frontier with attendants, messengers, custodians, and cargo. The tension revolves around human figures rendered with extreme realis, concurring in the creation of the moment before Dante’s meeting with the woman who (allegorically) symbolizes the path to God. All the creatures of the tableau are life-sized and share the real space occupied by the Viewer/s. They have a spectral presence within that space which silently enacts a living history.”

From The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

For more on the South African artist, see Wikipedia.

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 2012, Africa, Art, Art Books, Beatrice, Installation Art, Matelda, Migration, Paradise, Purgatory, South Africa

Single’s Inferno Netflix Series (2021)

January 17, 2022 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

singles_inferno_netflix_cover_image_two

Single’s Inferno (Korean: 솔로지옥, sollojiog) is a 2021 Korean reality TV series that follows 12 singles as they attempt to find love on a deserted island. The singles begin on an island named “Inferno” and vie for each other’s affection in order to go on dates at a resort called “Paradise”. The first season of the show is currently streaming on Netflix.

Watch a trailer for Single’s Inferno here.

Categories: Digital Media
Tagged with: Dating, Hell, Inferno, Netflix, Paradise, Reality TV, South Korea, Television

Sante Matteo, “Escape from Paradise,” Twelve Writers

January 9, 2022 By Professor Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Before Beatrice fled from Florence to Venice and beyond in my story, she migrated from the classroom to the written page, then set sail and found a welcome dock at Twelve Winters Journal.

“A course I taught on the Divine Comedy drew students with a wide spectrum of academic interests. I encouraged them to undertake a term project related to their field of studies, as long as it included an account of their research and how their secondary sources contributed to the creation of their final product (a bit like this commentary). Art students handed in paintings and sculptures; music students composed, performed, and recorded musical pieces; writing majors wrote poetry and stories; theater majors wrote and staged plays; film students scripted, shot, and showed movies; philosophy majors wrote Platonic dialogues. My office became a museum of intriguing works of art.

“Beatrice often figured in the students’ projects, which gave me the idea for a piece that showed how things might have looked through her eyes. After I retired and began to dabble in ‘creative writing,’ I emulated my students and took on the project of drafting a story presented from her perspective. [. . .]” –Sante Matteo, “Commentary on ‘Escape from Paradise’,” Twelve Winters

Read Sante Matteo’s story “Escape from Paradise” at Twelve Winters‘ website here.

See also Sante Matteo’s poem “Assignation” (here) and his essay on Dante and baseball (here).

Contributed by Sante Matteo

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2021, Academia, Beatrice, Creative Writing, Fiction, Ohio, Oxford (Ohio), Paradise, Pedagogy, Short Stories, Student Projects, United States, Universities

Valley of the Painted Stones Murals in Sicily, Silvio Benedetto (1992)

November 10, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

valley-of-painted-stones-mural

“La Valle Delle Pietre Dipinte, or the Valley of Painted Stones (also known as the Park of the Divine Comedy), is a series of 110 painted marble slabs that depict events and people from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Artist and sculptor Silvio Benedetto began this endeavor in 1992. Benedetto, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1938, moved to Italy in 1964 and completed other well-known works there, such as the murals for Cinque Terre National Park. He has been called the ‘last of the great mural artists.’

“La Valle delle Pietre Dipinte is located in Campobello di Licata, Sicily. The park is a physical experience as well as an artistic one. Visitors walk through it, going from Hell to Purgatory to Paradise. The journey begins with a downward path into Hell, which features such recognized figures as La Lupa, Beatrice, Francesca and Paolo, and Ulysses. The viewer goes up from Hell to Purgatory, finally ascending the hill to Paradise, where a mural of the Virgin Mary can be seen. The last mural of the series says, ‘E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle’ or ‘And then we went out to see the stars.'”    –Contributor Abigail Williams

See also a collection of photographs of the murals at the Valley of Painted Stones here.

For more information about Campobello di Licata and the Valley of Painted Stones, click here.

Contributed by Abigail Williams (University of Arkansas, ’22)

Categories: Places, Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 1992, Argentinian Artists, Beatrice, Campobello di Licata, Hell, Italy, Murals, Paolo and Francesca, Paradise, Purgatory, Sicily, Ulysses, Visual Arts

The Sowers of Discord EP, Above/Below (2017)

November 1, 2021 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

the-sowers-of-discord-album-cover

Australian metal band Above/Below released an EP titled The Sowers of Discord on January 12, 2017. The album features track titles that reference various parts of the Divine Comedy, including “I.I Purgatory”, “I.II Inferno”, and “I.III Paradise”.

For more information about the album, see its entry on Bandcamp here.

The full EP can be streamed on YouTube here.

Categories: Music
Tagged with: Albums, Australia, Australian Bands, Bands, Inferno, Metal, Music, Paradise, Purgatory, Sowers of Discord, Sydney

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How to Cite

Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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