Medusa with the Head of Perseus is a sculpture created by Luciano Garbati in 2008. The statue depicts Medusa holding a sword and the head of Perseus, a role reversal of Greek legend. A bronze cast version is temporarily displayed in Collect Pond Park, Lower Manhattan.
The work has been linked to the Me Too movement. [1]
The sculpture depicts a nude Medusa holding the head of Perseus in her right hand and a sword in her left. [1] The original Medusa was sculpted in clay, then cast in resin with fibreglass reinforcements. [2] The sculpture stands just over 2 metres tall. [3] [2]
Garbati grew up in a small town near Florence, where Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus with the Head of Medusa is prominently displayed in the Loggia Lanzi of the Piazza della Signoria; he admired Cellini's work, and wanted to reverse the roles of the narrative. In an interview with Quartz , he drew the distinction between Cellini's Perseus and his Medusa; in the former Perseus is triumphant, while in the latter Medusa is determined, and had acted in self defense. [2] He would later state that he was unaware of Medusa's status as a feminist icon at the time. [4]
A photograph of Medusa, captioned "Be thankful we only want equality and not payback", went viral on social media in 2018. [5] This image was seen by New York photographer Bek Andersen, who quickly got into contact with an anonymous patron of the arts. [2] [6] Medusa was the centerpiece of Medusa With The Head, a pop-up exhibition in the Bowery that ran from November 2018 to January 2019. [7]
Andersen and Garbati later collaborated on an application to New York City's Art in the Parks program. A bronze replica of Medusa was installed in Collect Pond Park, facing the New York County Criminal Court building. [8] [9] Some have drawn comparison between Medusa and the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial, which took place at the New York County Criminal Court. [1]