Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
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.
“It’s fitting that IKEA stores are organised in a series of winding circles with no easy escape. It’s not unlike the circles of hell that the protagonist of Dante’s Inferno must wander before heading on to Purgatory and then Heaven.
“But unlike the soul in Dante’s epic poem, you never get to Heaven. What awaits you once you’ve managed to locate and then purchase your Tuffing and Malfors is yet another circle of hell. This one is in your own home and the instrument of torture is an Allen key.” [. . .]
–Kasey Edwards, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 15, 2019
“Gregorian chants play softly and a curl of incense drifts high into the air at Garry Shead’s studio in Bundeena on the coast of the Royal National Park.
“For almost five months, Shead, one of Australia’s best-known figurative painters, has been grappling with a new series based on Dante Alighieri’s poem, The Divine Comedy. Invoking the spirit of the 700-year-old poet has been “terribly difficult”. He grimaces as he recalls stepping up to the blank canvas every morning, regardless of whether he felt like it or not.” […] –Ali Gripper, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 12, 2014
Check out Garry Shead’s online art gallery here.
