Ecological Myth: Ovid and the Anthropocene in three examples of contemporary Danish art

Abstract

At a time of increasing ecological anxiety, Ovid’s Metamorphoses gains a new relevance for its distinct portrayal of the relationship between humanity and the environment. While the poem has exerted a significant historic influence in the visual arts, the text’s importance reemerges for artists today as they explore current preoccupations about anthropogenic climate change, environmental degradation and posthumanist futures. The significance of this 21st-century reception of Ovid in the visual arts, however, is yet to be fully examined. In this paper, I consider the work of three contemporary Danish artists,who draw the Metamorphoses into ecological discourse, representing the afterlife of the poem in the Anthropocene.