Daughter: The Light
Sofia Petrides · born 2009
Sofia’s portrait turns towards the future. The Light leaves the family story open: the next generation inherits a past and remains free to shape its future.
Petrides asked his daughter to sit for the sculpture when she was twelve. Her features meet the form of an ancient Kore, a figure he first encountered as a child in the Acropolis Museum.
Her upward gaze gives the portrait a sense of openness. That change in direction offers a quiet sense of possibility. The daughter is not asked to complete the stories of those before her; she has a story of her own to make.
The Light belongs to the artist’s Kore series, named after its ancient model. A version of this portrait, Kore II, stands at the entrance of the Children’s Hospital “Aglaia Kyriakou” in Athens, bringing the family image into a public setting. See Kore II.
- Model
- Sofia Petrides · born 2009
- Theme
- Responsibility to future generations
- Materials
- Recycled PETG, printed at large scale, reworked by hand, and finished with metal coatings, patinas and pigments.
- Dimensions
- 75 × 57 cm · height × diameter
- Completed
- 2024 · Version II
Looking and reflecting
What would you pass to the next generation?
Views and details
Sculptural reference
Kore 684 · Acropolis Museum, Athens
The ancient Kore’s formal pose and distinctive smile provided the starting point. The resulting sculpture brings together a childhood memory of looking at art and the artist’s present relationship with his daughter.
In the artist’s words
George Petrides · edited from the original artist’s account.
For the final sculpture in this journey, I returned to a work I first encountered as a child. My aunt Emanuela, the wife of my mother’s brother and an archaeological guide, used to take me to the old Acropolis Museum on the Acropolis itself. Decades later, I renewed my connection with Kore 684 in the new museum, which opened in 2009.
I chose this sculpture as my model and asked my daughter Sofia, then twelve, to pose. My Kore brings the ancient figure’s suggestive smile together with my daughter’s features.
Her upward gaze gives the portrait a sense of openness.
Sculptural inspiration — read more
Kore 684 belongs to the Archaic tradition of clothed young women, with formal poses, carefully worked hair, and the distinctive Archaic smile. Traces of ancient colour recall that these figures were not conceived simply as the white marble we often imagine. Here an ancient sculptural convention meets a particular child’s face.
Historical film
Watch the English-language film on YouTube.