![]() ![]() (Smaller models of the sculpture in resin are already sold out.) It’s displayed now as part of the Parks Department’s Art in the Parks program, on view until April 2021. ![]() To promote the work, Andersen founded the MWTH Project - a riff on myth - and showed the sculpture along with several other pieces challenging classical themes last year in Soho. The piece now stands 7 feet tall and was cast in bronze Carbon Sculpt Studios in Red Hook. New York artist Bek Andersen encountered it there, tracked down Garbati and the two plotted to bring the work to NYC. In 2018, he uploaded an image of it to Facebook where it became a meme in support of #metoo. Garbati first created the sculpture in 2008 in resin. ![]() She gained those powers, and the snakes for hair, after being cursed by Athena: the goddess was angry that Poseidon had raped the mortal Medusa in Athena’s temple, and took it out on the maiden. Of course just the title alone tells you that the sculptor has turned the myth on its head too: the way the Greeks wrote it, Perseus decapitates Medusa therefore ending her reign of terror, where she turned all caught in her gaze to stone. And for a minute I didn’t even recognize the snakes - I just thought it was a woman who had cut off a man’s head. “Medusa With the Head of Perseus” by Luciano Garbati is so frank I found it startling. The feminist activist Wagatwe Wanjuki, who has written extensively on violence against women, wrote on Twitter, “#Metoo was started by a Black woman, but a sculpture of a European character by a dude is the commentary that gets centered? Sigh.An extreme version of victim-shaming perpetuated in classical mythology has been reinterpreted by an Argentine-Italian sculptor and adopted by the #MeToo movement in a statue on view at Collect Pond Park. And still others claimed that the mythology had been distorted-in order for it to make sense, some said, Poseidon’s head ought to be at Medusa’s side, not Perseus’s. Others took a more serious tack, demanding that greater scrutiny be placed on why a male artist was given such a platform for taking on such a subject. Over the weekend, some poked fun at the work, making jokes about its lack of pubic hair, which some said ought to be snakes. The announcement that the sculpture would be installed across from the court was met with heated debate online, as many lauded the symbol of justice while others questioned aspects of its creation and its look. The project was organized by the artist-led MWTH Project, in partnership with NYC Parks, and will be on view through April 30, 2021. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, Medusa has been reinterpreted as being symbolic of the victim-blaming suffered by rape survivors. “How can a triumph be possible if you are defeating a victim,” Garbati said in a statement. Medusa With the Head of Perseus offers Medusa a twist on that mythology, depicting the gorgon displaying Perseus’s severed head. ![]() Cellini’s iconic sculpture depicts the Greek hero Perseus standing atop Medusa’s decapitated body as he brandishes her head in victory. With the assistance of the gods, the hero Perseus hunted and beheaded Medusa. Athena, incensed that her temple was defiled, transformed Medusa into a snake-haired gorgon whose gaze turned any onlooker to stone. According to ancient Greek mythology, Medusa was a maiden of the temple of Athena who was raped by Poseidon. The work reimagines Italian Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini’s 16th-century sculpture Perseus with the Head of Medusa, which is on display in the Piazza Della Signoria in Florence, Italy. Arts and Cultural Industries Represented a Record $1 Trillion of the US Economy in 2021, New Report Finds ![]()
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