One Family, One Century: Toward the Light is a monumental portrait cycle that narrates sculptor George Petrides’ family history across a hundred years—from the rupture of 1922 to the promise of 2022—framing displacement, resilience, and the ethical transmission of values across generations. Modeled on five family members and articulated through five archetypes—the Grandmother (The Root), the Mother (The Preserver), the Father (The Captain), the Self (The Redeemer), and the Daughter (The Light)—the over-life-size busts function as a lineage of guardianship: continuity protected through upheaval, stability built through responsibility and risk, and healing that transforms inherited burden into peace.

Migration Dignity (Humanizing Displacement). Beginning with the grandmother’s forced departure in 1922, the cycle gives a human face to migration—rendering displacement not as statistic, but as lived experience marked by dignity, endurance, and rebuilding.

Gender Equality (Women as Preservers of Intangible Culture). The Root and The Preserver foreground women’s central role in safeguarding home, language, ritual, and moral continuity—highlighting the often-invisible labor through which tradition survives crisis.

Social Transformation (UNESCO MOST). Across five generations, the work traces how families adapt to historic and social change—how identity is negotiated between homeland and diaspora, and how responsibility is reorganized as communities move, rebuild, and re-anchor.

Culture for Health (Healing and Well-Being). The Redeemer articulates art as a vessel for collective healing: naming inherited “ghosts,” processing transgenerational trauma, and shifting memory from burden toward integration, resilience, and mental well-being.

Futures Literacy (Intergenerational Justice and Youth-Led Hope). The cycle culminates in The Light—an image of a next generation shaped by education and possibility—asking what it means to leave not only prosperity, but peace, and how we become worthy ancestors to those who follow.

Technically, the project unites heritage with sustainable innovation. Each sculpture begins in hand-worked clay, then moves through 3D scanning and digital sculpting, and is re-created in reclaimed, sustainable materials before being hand-finished again—achieving an archival, enduring finish. Premiering in the Gulf, the work enters a cultural landscape that values intergenerational continuity, respect for ancestors, and moral responsibility toward future generations, aligning local priorities with globally shared UNESCO themes.