artwork
SURFACING MEDUSA
Like Gorgoneia of the ancient world¹, these pieces were not made for gallery viewing. The striking Medusa figure, with her seaweed snakes, formed a focal point for this multipart work and ritual, sited in the rear portico area of the marquee, by the sea, where people engaged with conference themes: an apotropaic symbol of protection, looking over the event as it unfolded.
‘ever-shifting mirror’ ²
A constant in the collective imagination, Medusa has been referenced as allegory, cautionary figure and monster through time. The head sculpture draws out Medusa’s symbolism and duality through its monumental form—in the sense of its sheer scale, which points to her power—and yet this is subverted through the impermanence and fragility of the work.
The raw style of the withy figure is mediated by its materials, which connect the work to its site. Her exaggerated features evoke Medusa’s distinctive ‘otherness’, echoing elements of her stylised appearance in archaic incarnations rendered in clay and stone.
Her arrival ‘procession’ through the landscape of the Rame Peninsula at Polhawn marked the start of the ritual of this multipart work.
‘curl and flow’ ³
Over time, Medusa has been depicted with and without her snakes and as separate but connected entities. Here she sits alongside baskets of seaweed snakes, each of which is part of a ‘seething’ multiple. The snakes take a recognisable but symbolic form, an extension of Medusa’s mask, eliciting the private externalisation of thoughts, messages and memories of workshop participants.
Unlike Medusa, the seaweed snakes are painted in opaque colours: yellows, greens, purples, and blues. This unexpected use of colour in a work made entirely of natural materials is striking and jarring.⁴ The painted snakeskins provide both cohesion across the multiple and individuality as they were later intertwined in the Beach Mandala Ritual. The colour achieved its purpose as the snakes created patterns on the surface of the lapping waves, which could be traced as they returned to the sea.
after life
In the spirit of Medusa’s continual reinterpretation and reappropriation, shapeshifting through time, the Medusa sculpture went on to appear in Cornwall’s Menheniot Cherry Fayre, placed as talisman on the route of the carnival procession.
‘ever-shifting mirror’ ²
A constant in the collective imagination, Medusa has been referenced as allegory, cautionary figure and monster through time. The head sculpture draws out Medusa’s symbolism and duality through its monumental form—in the sense of its sheer scale, which points to her power—and yet this is subverted through the impermanence and fragility of the work.
The raw style of the withy figure is mediated by its materials, which connect the work to its site. Her exaggerated features evoke Medusa’s distinctive ‘otherness’, echoing elements of her stylised appearance in archaic incarnations rendered in clay and stone.
Her arrival ‘procession’ through the landscape of the Rame Peninsula at Polhawn marked the start of the ritual of this multipart work.
‘curl and flow’ ³
Over time, Medusa has been depicted with and without her snakes and as separate but connected entities. Here she sits alongside baskets of seaweed snakes, each of which is part of a ‘seething’ multiple. The snakes take a recognisable but symbolic form, an extension of Medusa’s mask, eliciting the private externalisation of thoughts, messages and memories of workshop participants.
Unlike Medusa, the seaweed snakes are painted in opaque colours: yellows, greens, purples, and blues. This unexpected use of colour in a work made entirely of natural materials is striking and jarring.⁴ The painted snakeskins provide both cohesion across the multiple and individuality as they were later intertwined in the Beach Mandala Ritual. The colour achieved its purpose as the snakes created patterns on the surface of the lapping waves, which could be traced as they returned to the sea.
after life
In the spirit of Medusa’s continual reinterpretation and reappropriation, shapeshifting through time, the Medusa sculpture went on to appear in Cornwall’s Menheniot Cherry Fayre, placed as talisman on the route of the carnival procession.
REFERENCES & NOTES
01-03
references and notes
(01) See Medusa Myth page for more on Gorgoneia of the ancient world, and further links.
(02-03) These fragments are from Shelley’s (ca 1819) poem, reflecting upon an artwork of Medusa’s head, at the time attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci. This poem is in the public domain. Shelley, P. B. (1824) ‘On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery’, in Shelley, M. (ed), “Posthumous Poems”, London, C. H. Reynell for John and Henry L. Hunt. Available: https://poets.org/poem/medusa-leonardo-da-vinci-florentine-gallery See also: Hildebrand, W. (1991). ‘Self, Beauty and Horror: Shelley's Medusa Moment’. In: Blank, G.K. (eds) “The New Shelley. Studies in Romanticism”. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21225-5_9
(04) The strangeness of this unexpected use of colour mirrors long-held preconceptions of ancient sculpture as white, including many Gorgoneia, though the past was full of colour. Visualising these polychromatic works from original pigment flakes presents them in a new and uncanny light. See, for example: https://artincontext.org/archaic-greek-art/
refs
images and galleries
01
medusa installation, jung by the sea
Medusa artwork installation, ‘Jung by the Sea’ Marquee, Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Denise Reeves (2023). Reproduced with permission.
02
medusa ‘procession’ onto site
‘Conveying Medusa’s head through the landscape’, Rame Peninsula at Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Denise Reeves (2023). Reproduced with permission.
03
aerial image of marquee with medusa installation
Drone image of ‘Jung by the Sea’ marquee at Polhawn Fort, showing Medusa installation (2023). Photograph: Bill Bartlett (2023). Reproduced with permission.
04
medusa artwork installation, marquee
Medusa artwork installation, ‘Jung by the Sea’ Marquee, Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Sarah Hall (2023). Reproduced with permission.
05
medusa artwork, marquee (detail)
Medusa artwork (detail), ‘Jung by the Sea’ Marquee, Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Sarah Hall (2023). Reproduced with permission.
06
medusa artwork installation, marquee (profile)
Medusa artwork installation (profile view), ‘Jung by the Sea’ Marquee, Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Sarah Hall (2023). Reproduced with permission.
07
seaweed snakes multiple (installation detail)
Seaweed Snakes Multiple (installation detail) Marquee, Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Sarah Hall (2023). Reproduced with permission.
08
medusa artwork, (front view)
Medusa artwork (front view showing detail of head). Photograph: Sarah Hall (2023). Reproduced with permission.
09
glimpse of seaweed snakes at the edge of the waves
‘Drone image showing a glimpse of seaweed snakes at the edge of the waves,’ ‘Jung by the Sea’, Polhawn Fort (2023). Photograph: Patrick Sturrock (2023). Reproduced with permission.
10
afterlife: medusa at menheniot cherry fayre
Medusa sculpture reinterpreted at Menheniot Cherry Fayre, Cornwall, 2023. Left: Installing the work on the building, Middle/Right: Medusa’s Head, Temporary installation along the carnival procession route. Photographs: Sarah Hall (2023). Reproduced with permission. (See link in text for images.)
