Priests of the Fruit and Flower religion
Jun. 18th, 2009 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusOn arriving in Athens, I began to speculate about the ancient Greek religion. Little did I know that I'd become an initiate, before the week was out, in a new religion that partakes in some of its mysteries.
It all began on Tuesday, when Hisae and I entered a crumbly old house in Kerameikos and found a group of people assembled in a courtyard at the back, distilling. A priest-like man began to explain to me that they were making a sacred sort of vodka flavoured with a stone obtained from the Acropolis. A Greek friend later told me that taking stones from the Acropolis is punishable by a prison sentence, but I am informed the priestlike man intends to return the stone after the vodka has been made.
For some reason the man (seen above, disguised by sunglasses) began to speak of an oracle, a ghost, a double seen in a mirror. He said that he was the keeper of a gallery on Stanton Street in the Lower East Side of New York, and that he had access to an oracle. He advised me to come back and drink the vodka when it was ready.
The following day we met this man by chance near the Agora. Despite living in New York, he seems to be from the Mediterranean. His gallery is called Fruit and Flower Deli, and its mysterious cult is described here. According to sacred documents he is actually called Rodrigo Mallea Lira, and he is the Keeper of the Oracle. The Oracle is a painting by the Swedish artist Ylva Ogland, wife of The Keeper. The painting -- which we saw -- represents a mysterious oracular mirror brought by her family when they came to Sweden from Britain. This mirror apparently makes prouncements about the state of the gallery, and of the world. (Is it true, by the way, that the Delphic Oracle obtained her visions by inhaling ethylene fumes from a poisonous stream that flowed through her temple? I believe so.)
Later, we encountered The Keeper at a party in a vacant Kerameikos lot where Ylva Ogland -- whom I believe is also called The Ghost -- was folding paper hats bearing oracular invocations. Donning one of these hats and sipping the sacred Acropolean vodka instantly inducts one into the Brotherhood of the Oracle, so Hisae and I both became, immediately, priests in the Fruit and Flower religion. We were photographed in front of a sacred oleander by Pablo Leon de la Barra, who kindly conferred his own priesthood -- in the shape of his folded paper hat -- on Hisae.
It all began on Tuesday, when Hisae and I entered a crumbly old house in Kerameikos and found a group of people assembled in a courtyard at the back, distilling. A priest-like man began to explain to me that they were making a sacred sort of vodka flavoured with a stone obtained from the Acropolis. A Greek friend later told me that taking stones from the Acropolis is punishable by a prison sentence, but I am informed the priestlike man intends to return the stone after the vodka has been made.
For some reason the man (seen above, disguised by sunglasses) began to speak of an oracle, a ghost, a double seen in a mirror. He said that he was the keeper of a gallery on Stanton Street in the Lower East Side of New York, and that he had access to an oracle. He advised me to come back and drink the vodka when it was ready.
The following day we met this man by chance near the Agora. Despite living in New York, he seems to be from the Mediterranean. His gallery is called Fruit and Flower Deli, and its mysterious cult is described here. According to sacred documents he is actually called Rodrigo Mallea Lira, and he is the Keeper of the Oracle. The Oracle is a painting by the Swedish artist Ylva Ogland, wife of The Keeper. The painting -- which we saw -- represents a mysterious oracular mirror brought by her family when they came to Sweden from Britain. This mirror apparently makes prouncements about the state of the gallery, and of the world. (Is it true, by the way, that the Delphic Oracle obtained her visions by inhaling ethylene fumes from a poisonous stream that flowed through her temple? I believe so.)
Later, we encountered The Keeper at a party in a vacant Kerameikos lot where Ylva Ogland -- whom I believe is also called The Ghost -- was folding paper hats bearing oracular invocations. Donning one of these hats and sipping the sacred Acropolean vodka instantly inducts one into the Brotherhood of the Oracle, so Hisae and I both became, immediately, priests in the Fruit and Flower religion. We were photographed in front of a sacred oleander by Pablo Leon de la Barra, who kindly conferred his own priesthood -- in the shape of his folded paper hat -- on Hisae.
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absolutely smashing!
Date: 2009-06-17 10:56 pm (UTC)Sources confide: the oracle at Delphi had access to pharmacological riches it will yet take our very best biochemistry labs decades to reproduce and recover.
***
t.y.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-17 11:05 pm (UTC)hmmm...
Date: 2009-06-17 11:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-17 11:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 02:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 03:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 03:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 05:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 11:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 08:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 09:25 am (UTC)WC1/
Date: 2009-06-18 01:10 pm (UTC)2. Acropolis museum re-opens over the weekend, will you still be there?
3. Love to H! xx
Re: WC1/
Date: 2009-06-18 01:24 pm (UTC)1. That's genius
2. That would have improved her prophecies dramatically
3. Where can I get some of those?
Re: Delphic oracle drug fume legend
Date: 2009-06-18 06:51 pm (UTC)You fail.
Your sources:
"the oracle did not do Classical whip-its. The delphic oracle was a bible used-car salesman in drag. That is the sad truth behind the legend. We have irrefutable proof."
My sources:
" 'Classical whip-its'?!! As in nitrous?! Que retardo!!!! I never said anything about canisters related and brain oxygen starvation! Leave it at that, they wish to spread ignorance, can't stop them..."
Re: Delphic oracle drug fume legend
Date: 2009-06-18 10:48 pm (UTC)The idea that a triptastic gas emitted from a fissure in the rocks at Delphi is apocryphal, and you're on the nitrous if you can extrapolate my words up there into evangelical drag (which sounds Bowie, so fine, but that's another thing). The person who found a joke about whip-its to their taste is not quite so literal-minded or eager to be domineering as you.
Nick, if you'd like to adjudicate, feel free?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-18 02:58 pm (UTC)I am so glad you liked that! it was great to have you there .
Please do not forget to mention in your post, if you wish, that mirror vodka was made in athens to initiate the first kunsthalle athena here...
I ( marina fokidis, curator and artistic director of the kunsthalle to be and barwoman last night, and near rodrigo in your photos with striped dress ) asked the oracle if there is space for a kunsthalle in athens , the oracle said yes and I invited ylva ogland to distil the vodka together and present it as the first project of this kunsthalle. The distilling was fantastic as well as the drinking of mirror vodka, the acropolitic stones was inside because we want the kunsthalle to stay open for ever!!!!
Now the kunsthalle athena is inside youthis vodka through and please support it as much as you can !!!!!!!
thanx for coming and speak to you soon
marina fokidis
(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-21 08:20 am (UTC)The official ReMap photographer's version of the same scene, as published on the ReMap blog (http://www.remapkm.com/index.php/blog).