Katabasis

Katabasis (from Greek κατάβασις, “going down”) is a mythic motif describing a descent to the underworld, and the sometimes-failed attempt to return. Across myth, literature, religion, and theory, katabasis functions as a structural experience of crisis and transformation. The hero must descend to the lowest point before completing his quest. What is found in this pit varies: knowledge, blessing, a possibility of life in the face of death. It takes the power and desperation of the Great Mother to draw the beloved back from the underworld. Like Jeremiah's Rachel, whose ceaseless crying "for her children who are not" bends God to her will. Her all-consuming grief is potent enough to defeat death—but only partially. The underworld sucks at the feet of those who enter, never fully releasing them. In these works, Caron Greenblatt undertakes her own katabasis, descending into the underworld of her subconscious. Through her free movement in charcoal and pastel, she goes deeper and deeper into the earth. Layering and erasing, she searches--for a way home, for a way forward, for the possibility of hope and knowledge. Seekers, mothers, and animal guides, stumble through the crumbled dust of her drawings. Facing formlessness and beasts with multiple changing faces, they remain focused, working together to find a way through the gloom—and to bring the children home with them.