Swinburn has selected names of emblematic women from Christine de Pizan’s ‘The Book of the City of Ladies’ and engraved them as titles into the books of her fictional library, ‘Revolutionary Myths’ (2023). The artist has worked with the leather of the book spine as opposed to its paper contents; creating an image of a dismantled library of page-less books, which acts as a metaphor for the missing narratives of women in history. Through the process of deconstructing books and reweaving this material into an artwork, Swinburn recycles the past into present to create a newly woven narrative, a mythological cloak in appreciation of the revolutionary myths of women throughout history. Functioning as both garment and artwork; when worn, it yields the power to create sacred space for inner transformation, and when placed as an artwork in the sanctuary of the chapel, it instils a divine female presence into the place of worship, historically void of feminine energy.

In Greek mythology, Electra was one of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. She lived on the island of Samothrace. Electra was connected with the legend of the Palladium, the sacred statue, which became the talismanic protector of Troy. Electra, along with the rest of the Pleiades, were transformed into stars by Zeus. By some accounts she was the one star among seven of the constellation not easily seen because, since she could not bear to look upon the destruction of Troy, she hid her eyes, or turned away; or in her grief, she abandoned her sisters and became a comet. She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, Electra by Sophocles and Electra by Euripides. She is also the central figure in plays by Aeschylus, Alfieri, Voltaire, Hofmannsthal, and Eugene O'Neill.

The woven artworks of Catalina Swinburn seek to revalidate the place of women throughout history. Although ‘The Book of the City of Ladies’ was written more than half a millennium ago, it is filled with potent observations for our times, articulating its arguments much in the same way as today’s debate on the equality of women. With this text as the work’s medium, “Revolutionary Myths” is an appreciation of the vital feminine contributions to human civilisation across political, spiritual and practical spheres.