Ancient Myths under the Feminine Lens


Medusa Doing Her Hair and the pendant, Medusa, are inspired, as is much the artist’s work, by Greek mythology. Medusa was a mortal Gorgon who was transformed from a beautiful maiden into a hideous monster with an ugly face and snakes for hair. According to legend, anyone who looked at her was turned to stone. Medusa Doing Her Hair is a frontal shot of the protagonist, and Medusa is a view taken from behind. The artist is dressed in white with a delicately embroidered shawl around her shoulders and snakes in her elaborately coiffed hair. The image of Medusa as a beautiful maiden conforms to some versions of the legend. The images of the snakes are emblems of evil, thereby reminding the spectator of the long-held notion of women as harbingers of evil. In Dare Not to Look, however, Medusa looks at her own face in a mirror, recalling the legend that anyone who looked at Poseidon’s lover would have been turned into stone. The performative photographs implicitly suggest gender and power struggles that have shaped our collective views of “maidens” and “heroines” through the ages.