Daphne was a torso ending in leaves

The mythical metamorphosis of the nymph Daphne into a bay-laurel tree is reapproached in contemporary Rome, a landscape once surrounded by native laurel forests and still home to persistent depictions of the woman-tree-symbol in laurel wreaths and festoons. From hedges in parks & gardens to laureates for graduating students, Daphne (δἀφνη/alloro/bay-laurel) is both the subject of the film and the key ingredient of its making. The artist films making an infusion from a laurel wreath then hand-processes the black & white 16mm footage of its making. This is a film made about Daphne, with daphne, foregrounding her story through the plant’s phytochemistry. The hand development process folds into the thematic exploration of the plant’s symbolism as the camera lingers on Daphne’s historic and persisting depiction in Etruscan burial grounds, the botanical code of Augustus’ Ara Pacis monument and the garden frescoes of the Villa di Livia. The Baroque sculpture of Apollo attempting to rape Daphne by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which art historian Griselda Pollock responded to with a gasp, is here answered with a sigh. This instigates an attempt to reverse-metamorphose Daphne, breaking Ovid’s symbol and envisioning metamorphosis from the inside.