Medusa

Medusa was a beautiful maiden and a priest of Athena, and henceforth devoted her life to celibacy. However she was raped by Poseidon inside Athena’s temple, which enraged the Goddess. As revenge she transformed the wonderful young woman into a horrendous monster, whose most famous attributes were her snakes’ hairs and eyes that turned to stone people who looked at it. Medusa thus became the first and most famous victim of Rape Culture in Western Civilization. She has since been rendered as a terrible monster in all visual arts, to be dreaded by people.

I am revisiting the myth to denunciate Rape Culture and Victim Blaming, which are still very present today and are both fuel and consequence of the lack of gender equality. My Medusa is empowered in her dreaded, imposed monster role. She laughs at the face of her executioners and at society which once celebrated her beauty then blamed her for holding it. She is aware of her strengths and powers, and most importantly she knows the taboo of men lust turned her into a monster. She is ready to take her revenge.

In the final version of the artwork (which I will have ready by the end of December 2015) I will apply purple and silver pigments into the marble, in the snake area. The pigments will be applied in a tin geometrical line of 5mm depth maximum, thus playing within the snakes and bringing at the same time colors and contemporaneity to the work.