![]() ![]() He noted how the whole project had helped him realize that he was a product of a patriarchal society himself.Īs for the question of mythological accuracy, Garbati said his work was a direct response to Cellinis sculpture, which depicts the story of Perseus slaying Medusa and then using her severed head as a weapon, harnessing her power of turning people to stone with her stare. I would say I am honored by the fact that the sculpture has been chosen as a symbol, he said. Garbati said in an interview that, by now, his sculpture had a sort of independence from him, a life of its own created by outsiders observations and interpretations. And some questioned the decision to depict Medusa as a lithe, classically beautiful nude figure when she was described as a monster. ![]() Others wondered why, if the sculpture was intended to be about sexual violence, Medusa carried the head of Perseus and not Poseidon, her rapist. As news about the sculptures planned installation spread, activists and observers on social media wondered why a piece of art meant to honor the #MeToo movement which was animated, in large part, by an outpouring of personal stories from women was created by a man. Many saw the image as cathartic, he said.īut for some online commentators, the sculpture did not quite meet the moment. The application stated that the story had communicated to women for millennia that if they are raped, it is their fault.Īt Tuesdays unveiling in the park, where the statue will stand until the end of April, Garbati talked about the thousands of women who had written to him about the sculpture. As punishment, Athena turned her wrath on Medusa, transforming her hair into snakes. ![]() In his application to the citys Art in the Parks program, which reviews proposals for public art installations like this one, Garbati noted that Medusa had been raped by Poseidon in the Temple of Athena, according to the myth. ![]() The head was designed after the artist himself a convenient model. Standing in the center of Collect Pond Park, Medusa her gaze low and intense holds a sword in her left hand and Perseus head in her right. (The idea for the site predated the trial, but the sentiment remained.) On Tuesday, Garbatis sculpture Medusa With the Head of Perseus was reimagined as a symbol of triumph for victims of sexual assault, when it was unveiled in lower Manhattan, just across the street from the criminal courthouse on Centre Street.Ī news release advertised the statue as an icon of justice, noting that the towering, nearly 7-foot-tall Medusa stood across from the building where men accused of sexual assault during the #MeToo movement were prosecuted, including Harvey Weinstein, who had been convicted of two felony sex crimes there in February. Garbati conceived of a sculpture that could reverse that story, imagining it from Medusas perspective and revealing the woman behind the monster. Garbati, an Argentine artist with Italian roots, was inspired by a 16th-century bronze: Benvenuto Cellinis Perseus With the Head of Medusa. In that work, a nude Perseus holds up Medusas head by her snaky mane. He wasnt thinking of the #MeToo movement either: Garbati had created the work in 2008, nearly a decade before the movement went mainstream. When artist Luciano Garbati made his sculpture of Medusa holding Perseus severed head an inversion of the centuries-old myth feminism was not what he had in mind. ![]()
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