Head of Medusa (Silver Edition)

Medusa is a series that paints the Medusa of Greek myth with the face of an anime character. Like the emblem on a shield, the face sits inside a silver circle, framed by blond hair, snakes, and wings. That face has been painted in variations of color and expression, and has expanded from painting even into 3D sculpture. I wanted to make a sculpted head, and in searching for a subject to suit it, I arrived at the head of Medusa. Medusa is a strange being who keeps her power even when only her head remains. Her severed head was set on Athena's shield and became a weapon of the gods, and in ancient Greece Medusa's face was an apotropaic image carved on shields and temples. The premise that anyone who looks at her turns to stone means that no one could ever look at that face directly; even Perseus saw it only as a reflection in his shield. Medusa was originally a beautiful woman, and Athena's curse turned her hair into snakes. I thought she must have remained beautiful even after her hair became snakes. What made her a monster was not her face but the rumors of people who judged her without ever looking at her. Because being treated as a monster through no fault of one's own is still common today, I felt this myth still speaks to the present. So I painted Medusa with the beautiful face of an anime character. Caravaggio painted the severed head on an actual shield in Medusa (1597–1598). Rubens showed the head lying on the ground, with snakes being born from its blood, in Head of Medusa (1617–1618), and Bernini carved in marble the anguished face at the moment her hair turns to snakes in Bust of Medusa (1644–1648). With those works in mind, I placed a silver circle resembling a shield inside a square canvas and set the face within it. Blond hair, ornamentally arranged snakes, and wings surround the face, and red blood flows from the severed neck. I painted the blood red rather than the pink of Torso because I wanted to bring out something deep and beautiful rather than cute. The drawing style recalls Japanese animation and game art of the 1980s and '90s. I think the mark of that period is that every single strand of hair catches the light and keeps its texture. If manga and anime since the 2000s have become simpler and cuter, what came before had a comparatively bolder, denser feel, and I felt that suited Medusa. Until then I had almost never painted the same character over and over, but Medusa seemed the right subject for seeing what is gained by repeating a single image. Around Head of Medusa (2021, oil on canvas, 162 × 162 cm), I developed the same face through variations: Head of Medusa – Gold (2022, 80 × 80 cm) and Head of Medusa – Pink (2022, 73 × 91 cm); Medusa's Smile and Medusa's Wrath (2021, 80 × 80 cm each); and Head of Medusa – Black and White (2021, 73 × 73 cm), drawn in line alone. The works were first shown in Nu Collection (UARTSPACE, Seoul, 2021) and continued in Odd&Nu (MUSEUM WAVE, Seoul, 2024). As I had first intended, I also made the sculpture. Head of Medusa (2021, resin, 24 × 24 × 30 cm) was made by drawing a sketch, modeling it in a 3D program, and printing it on a 3D printer. It was produced in three editions, white, gold, and silver, of ten each. Much changed in the course of the work, and the notion of an original grew faint. A virtual 3D image stays sharp however far it is enlarged, seemingly without end, while the sculpture that emerges as a physical object is degraded by comparison. And yet, the moment the work was finished, I could feel that the presence of the physical object was something else entirely.