Daphne

Lucinda Bennett

Despite spending most of her career in London, Alexis Hunter is considered one of Aotearoa’s most important feminist artists. Although best known for her radical 1970s photo-narratives which challenged male-dominated image culture, Hunter’s oeuvre also includes fantasical, expressionist oil paintings exploring female sexuality and creativity through mythological figures like witches, sirens, Medusa, amazons, and harpies.

This painting shows Daphne, a beautiful nymph from Greek mythology who was pursued relentlessly by the god Apollo. Desperate to escape him, Daphne prayed to her father, the river god Peneus, who transformed her into a laurel tree to keep her safe. Here, Hunter shows Daphne half-transformed, still human except for her hair, which has turned into twisting branches of laurel, amidst which perches a brown bird, possibly a dove, a hen, or perhaps even a weka.

Rather than simply a mythological portrait, this painting can be read as a feminist commentary on transformation, control, and resistance. In the myth, Daphne escapes Apollo’s pursuit by turning into a laurel tree—a moment often romanticised in classical art. But here, Hunter paints her during the transformation: rooted, still human, yet no longer free. The branches grow from her head like antlers or a crown, and the bird perches within, a symbol that can be read in many different ways, perhaps suggesting watchfulness, burden, or intrusion.

Hunter may be asking, what happens to Daphne after the escape? Is she safe—or just contained in a different way? Who benefits from her transformation? While the meaning is left open, this painting might be read as a feminist reimagining of the myth that critiques how women’s autonomy is often overwritten, even when they resist.