Artist Pavlina Vagioni and Art Historian Tony Huffman in Conversation: Medusa Unraveling, The Opening Gallery, New York, NY
By Ante Mag Editor Audra Lambert October 27, 2024
On July 12, 2024, art historian Tony Huffman (Hauser & Wirth) chatted with artist Pavlina Vagioni and a growing audience assembled to learn more about her practice, gain insight into her process in creating visual art informed by a potent sense of materiality and to delve into the secrets of the Gorgon sisters of Greek myth informing themes in Vagioni’s contemporaneous solo exhibit, Medusa Unraveling, on view at The Opening Gallery through August 10, 2024. This conversation is transcribed below, interspersed with images from the solo showing.
Tony Huffman | Today on the occasion of visiting Medusa Unraveling, I have some questions I want to ask and then I’ll open up the floor to questions from our audience – first I’m very struck by the research present in this exhibit, in addition to being very process-oriented. I’m familiar with a myth (of Medusa) as it’s very popular in visual culture: are there different versions of it across the Mediterranean? Can you tell us about how the story differs…?
Pavlina Vagioni | So the (Medusa) story originates as far as we know in Greece, later progressing to the Romans. It keeps on evolving (over time) so that the more recent descriptions of the myth are about a rape, but if you go earlier, there is no rape at all. Medusa is born a monster with two sisters. This is a royal lineage – each sister reigns over her own island. The word “Medusa “ (‘Methusa’ in the Greek alphabet) means to reign, rule, or protect – to look over something. She did give birth when she was decapitated but we don’t know how her two children – the horse Pegasus and another giant – were conceived. The myth later evolves – later, she was a beautiful maiden in Athena’s temple who was taken by Poseidon and was cursed to become a Gorgon. You have to understand about myths that they’re like language: they evolve. What I was interested in (in terms of Medusa) was the earliest descriptions of the myth, which have nothing to do with rape or transformation – she’s born how she is and she’s the only mortal of her sisters – who are both immortal – as their parents are sea deities.
Usually when I start to work with a myth I read primary sources. And there is a scholar from the Vienna Academy in the 18th century – Athanasios Stagiritis – who wrote five comprehensive volumes of the mythologies of the Mediterranean peoples, which were published in Vienna. This work, which was published in his lifetime, sadly hasn’t been translated. He noted that the names of the family members indicate the gist of the myth – the names of the sisters are ‘to reign’ (Medusa) – her sisters’ names translate to Vigor & Wide – because at the time the sea could kill you. Their parents’ names also reference the sea, so their names also likely reference the power of the sea; their father’s name allegorically means the movement of the waters, while their mother’s name refers to the depth of the sea; in Greek associated with “voluminous” sea creatures.
TH | Is this in one version of the myth..?
PV | Yes, in the version where she’s born a Gorgon. The Greek word “Kitos” – the mother’s name, for example – refers to something enormous in the sea, like a blue whale. References to the sea, and snakes, are intentional with Medusa, and I believe it begins like this with Medusa before the myth evolved… in earlier times, there were amulets, like the evil eye, of Medusa which related to these themes of protection (showing that Medusa also had positive affiliations.) These themes overlap even in the ancient meanings. It’s no coincidence that the snake in Greek culture refers to the god of medicine and healing, Asclepius, taught by the centaur Chiron. A serpent climbs the caduceus: the symbol for medicine. There is also scholarship denoting that if you have a drop of blood from a Gorgon, a drop of blood can either heal or kill. The first hospital of ancient Greece apparently even had a circular room for patients with snakes underneath the floor so that as you dream, your healing is thus revealed to you. The snake was not such a bad thing in ancient Greece, and I was interested in that aspect of serpents. I also love the organic form of the snake, as well as snake skin as a material…so many things also depend on the snake’s shape, as a round snake is a feminine symbol but an upright snake is masculine. It has a dual nature. Are you familiar with the Ourobouro? A snake that eats its tail? It is round because it’s eating itself, and this is a Mediterranean symbol that evokes the egg, the womb and the cosmos. This is rich symbolism – the more you search the more you find.
To read the entire article click here.
Add a Comment