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The Gorgon [Dimensions: 48" x 72" 4 panels] · Carbon pencil, blackening watercolours, and inks on paper mounted to canvas · [ 2020–2025]
The Gorgon stares directly outward—eyes wide, no serpents writhing, but a skull mouth open in silent scream—as if the viewer is the one who has just turned to stone. Drawing from the Greek myth of Medusa (punished beauty, gaze that petrifies, beheading by Perseus who has sword in hand), this work flips the encounter: the monster confronts us, forcing us to meet her eyes and feel the weight of what we refuse to see. Her sisters remove their masks not hiding their intensions, and the hero resists all the beauty around him staring out at our fate the as the now stone viewer.
The blackening layers coil around her like the snakes, symbolizing accumulated rage, shame, and power turned inward. Yet the gaze is not only destructive—it demands honesty, stripping masks and revealing the unmasked self beneath the horror. What petrifies us is not the monster, but the truth we avoid looking at.
A meditation on punishment, transformation, female rage, and the rebirth that follows confrontation—dark yet eternally optimistic in its unflinching stare.
Inquiries welcome for acquisition, studio view, or related works: blairaiken@raincage.com