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STORE LOCATION: 691 Madison Avenue (at 62nd Street), New York NY

THROUGH JANUARY 12, 2006 (ON DISPLAY 24 HOURS)

CONTACT: MARY DINABURG OR RACHEL HOWE T: 212 807-0832

ARTIST'S WINDOWS~ THE FOUR RIVERS OF PARADISE...

The New York-based artist Michael Eade transforms the windows at Hermes into The Four Rivers Of Paradise, portraying the iconic and metaphoric powers of water found in history and lore. The birthplaces of modern civilization, The Tigris, The Euphrates, The Ganges, and The Nile rivers are individual subjects portrayed as four paintings in the smaller windows. The rivers continue on their journeys through mythical landscapes, which Eade has rendered in three-dimensions in the larger, primary windows.

In his signature style, Eade blends fact and fiction, drawing from classical texts, religious scriptures and various histories of art, nature and cultures. He creates immersive landscapes densely packed with symbols and allusions. Though they are comprised of an intricate web of references, Eade considers the most important readings of his windows at Hermes to be by the individual viewers who intuitively respond to them, informed by personal imageries, values, and associations.

Eade's renderings of The Four Rivers of Paradise are vibrant with flora, fauna, and mythologies. As the lifeblood of the lands and cultures they flow through, we recognize these rivers as the givers of life and as markers of time. We regard the Four Rivers Of Paradise as symbols of re-birth, purity, life and eternal life. Eade invites the viewer to stop along and view each of the rivers' paths to contemplate the very beauty of life surrounding us.

Eade has titled the three primary window installations of sculpture and bas-relief respectively-Poseidon's Gift, Methuselah, and The Serapis Family.

The inspirations for Poseidon's Gift are the two stories of how the Greek god of the oceans, rivers and water, Poseidon, gave the first horse to mankind. The window pictures the creation of the first horse as result of Poseidon striking a rock with his trident, as well as the alternate tale of the first horse growing from Poseidon's seed after having fallen to the earth's ground.

The window titled Methuselah is named after a 4,768-year-old bristlecone pine tree—The Methuselah Tree, which was a sapling when the great pyramids in Egypt were being built. Living and growing today in the East Sierra Mountains of California this bristlecone pine survives against all odds, pacing an incredibly long lifecycle drawing water seeped down through layers of rock. Like its biblical namesake, Methuselah is a glimpse of eternal life on earth.

Finally, in the third window, we find Eade's adaptation of the Egypto-Hellenic god, Serapis, a three-headed creature, who like the river Nile, is associated with the underworld and the passage of time. The creature's three heads signify the three parts of time; the voracious wolf represents the vanished past; the hopefully sniffing dog, anticipates the future; while the present, the middle head, is embodied as the majestic lion seen full-face. The Serapis was later absorbed into Christianity as an allegory for morality, good judgment, and the Trinity. In Eade's window titled The Serapis Family, he has designed a replacement for the traditional male model of the Serapis with the sculpture of a female Serapis tending to her cubs, nurturing them as the past, future and present. And so continues the cycle of life...

ARTIST'S WINDOWS AT HERMES... , HOLIDAYS 2005