Courting Vengeance

 

This brief post considers the statue Medusa With the Head of Perseus by Luciano Garbati. The statue inverts the death of the gorgon Medusa by the hands of Perseus. It is in fact not a new piece, an original having been made in 2008. Since its initial public release in 2018 there has been a great deal of criticism leveled against the artist that the statue is methodologically illiterate and logically challenged. And from feminist quarters the usual charges regarding any female nude statue as being an object of sexual exploitation, male aggression, etc. I find such criticisms not baseless per say but uninteresting. Whether or not an artist chooses to express his work under the constraints of tradition, clothed or nude is in my opinion his prerogative. As a private commission or on display in a show or gallery (as this statue has been in the past) I really would have nothing to say.  What is of interest here is the decision by NYC Art in the Parks to commission a bronze version to face the New York County Criminal Court thus making it a civic work of sculpture.

The statue was selected (though not originally designed and sculpted) for the express purpose of being a public symbol of the MeToo movement. Essentially, Medusa With the Head of Perseus so placed is not a symbol of justice rather one of judgement against the men who have been charged with rape and enter the courtroom doors to have their cases tried. This is a very different message than the traditional symbology of statues of Themis or Dike (Lady Justice). Yes, there may ultimately be an act of judgement as symbolised by the sword in Lady Justice's right hand; nevertheless, such a potential outcome is balanced against the assurance that the review of one's case will be impartial and there will be no prejudice as represented by the blindfold. The decision of the court is to be determined only by the careful weighing of the evidence as suggested by the scales of her left hand. Although many guilty men have walked, certainly so have at least a few men who had been falsely accused received exoneration. It is with this high ideal in mind that we have established in Western society courts that seek justice rather than ones that simply mete out judgement.*

This has been an interesting couple of years to witness statues and sculptures being torn down or threatened with removal. Public statues that are representative of widely shared virtues such as "liberty" or the aforementioned "justice" seem uncontroversial whereas others that place individuals on a pedestal or promote partisan ideologies seem divisive and problematic. With the current statues I've seen being offered as alternatives I wonder what exactly is the lesson being drawn from past mistakes aside from repeating them in our own vindictive way.

 *As an almost trivial note, I feel compelled to point out that those convicted of rape certainly do not receive the punishment of decapitation. That might be a mercy. Instead they are incarcerated in our industrial "correctional facilities" where often they continue to rape and/or become victims of rape themselves. 

Contributed by Patrick Webb