Feminists’ stony reception for monument to woman power outside Weinstein courthouse
ACROSS the road from Manhattan’s Supreme Court where Harvey Weinstein stood trial is a 7ft sculpture of Medusa holding the head of Perseus – an intended homage to female empowerment and the Metoo movement.
But the reaction has not been quite what Luciano Garbati, the artist, or the project’s promoters expected, as critics ridiculed the work and questions were raised on social media over why a male sculptor had been chosen.
Mr Garbati, who created the work in 2008, saw it as a feminist reworking of Benvenuto Cellini’s 16th- century bronze, Perseus With t he Head of Medusa. The original statue, in Florence, Italy, Perseus is holding up the severed head of the gorgon Medusa. Mr Garbati, an Argentine-italian sculptor, decided to reverse the narrative.
Ten years after creating the statue, Mr Garbati posted an image on social media and the image went viral.
The statue, seen as an avatar for female rage, had been kept at Mr Garbati’s studio in Buenos Aires. In 2018, it was brought to New York and exhibited in the Bowery Gallery.
Mr Garbati then applied to New York’s Art in the Parks programme for his work to be exhibited in Collect Pond Park, opposite the courthouse.
Cellini’s original statue, Mr Garbati said in his application, had “communicated to women for millennia that if they are raped, it is their fault”. In the Greek myth, Medusa, Athena’s handmaiden, was raped in the goddess’s temple by Poseidon but she blamed Medusa for defiling her sanctuary.
The statue was unveiled on Tuesday, but reaction was less than enthusiastic. Wagatwe Wanjuki, a feminist activist, wrote on Twitter: “#Metoo was started by a black woman, but a sculpture of a European character by a dude is the commentary that gets centred? Sigh.”
Others mocked the statue itself, noting, for example, that it lacked pubic hair. Had the work accurately reflected the myth, Medusa would have been brandishing the head of her rapist, Poseidon, not Perseus.
“If this is supposed to be so empowering for women, why is Medusa so skinny and pube-less? This seems more like some man’s fantasy than a commentary on sexual assault,” another posted.
Jerry Saltz, the New York art critic, was even more scathing about what he described as an “idiotic, generic, realist bronze sculpture.”
Writing in New York Magazine, Mr Saltz pulled no punches. “Don’t even try to figure out why it now stands across the street from the County Criminal Courthouse.
“This ooh-la-la monstrosity is sure to be a lightning rod for zealots protesting nudity and a co-star in endless selfies.”
Another Twitter user, Eirene Vapor, added: “Pretty sure most people are just going to be confused about why there’s a naked woman statue out in the public area, and those who do know the story are going to be annoyed that it’s been screwed up.”
Mr Garbati was at least supported by Bek Andersen, a photographer who worked with the sculptor to get his work installed in Manhattan.
“To me, it’s exciting that an artist is a man,” she said. “I think men feel left out of the #Metoo conversation, and I think they’re afraid of what it means for them. Destabilising the narrative as told through a patriarchal lens is really where the power of the work lies.”
‘This seems more like some man’s fantasy than a commentary on sexual assault’