Photos updated October 29, 2021. Day 24.

Completion of Gorgons Clay in 25 days: 65%

Approximately:
82”height x 108”width x 67”depth
208cm height x 274cm width x 170cm depth

Gorgons has been dismantled.

About Gorgons

The faces of the individual Gorgons represent my lowest forms. The first is the “beautiful” side that is Medusa. It is an inverse quote to the painting “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, and it represents the mask we all wear (in public/on social media/even in casual environments). It represents the calm surface, but if you walk around the sculpture and see the other faces you will come to recognize the true and mortal nature of the mask. The second side, Euryale, represents fear. The hair that flows from the face of Medusa wraps around and appears almost as snakes on this side. The fear it represents is the sort of fear that is debilitating and finds its source in grief—grief from loss: loss of loved ones, loss of relationships or friendships, loss of faith in a religion or loss of faith in oneself. The third face, Stheno, is a product of the first two. This face is one of cynicism, spite, frustration, anger, and loss of faith in humanity.

At this moment in our history, these feelings are simmering up to the surface for many of us as a result of the loneliness that we have experienced from the pandemic and a paralyzing sense of powerlessness in the face of a seeming indefinite uncertainty.

-Gabrielle Trom

How it Began

Near the end of my studies at the academy, I was supposed to sculpt a self portrait. I had recently sculpted Dorian Gray, and the texture of the hair appeared almost like scales—so jokingly I decided to sculpt myself as Medusa.

When I began sculpting Medusa, I didn’t have the best self-image (which is funny considering how much I love portraits—people are beautiful) and my head was hurting from internal chaos. So, instead of seeing the beauty, I began to focus on the ugly. I thought about the stories of the gorgons that I had read as a child. They were described as so horrifyingly ugly (and with snakes for hair) that if a human looked upon them, the human would turn to stone.

The first attempt was a rough sketch that was really me just wrestling with mirrors. The hair did not have any particular form and I was struggling to capture the right expressions.

At this point, I suddenly returned to the United States and my first sketch was abandoned in Barcelona.

The bartender at the saloon where I was working in Minnesota happened to be a ceramic artist and offered to lend me a space in his studio to restart my gorgons. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances, my mind was not in the right place and the project moved slowly before just falling to pieces entirely.

At the end of February 2020, I returned back to Barcelona. A few of the jobs I was relying on to pay living expenses evaporated and I was floundering. I rehydrated the cracking remains of my first attempt and poured my feelings from the last year into the sculpture. The concept and expressions began to take shape. Around this time, a call for sculptors from the National Sculptor Society announced a competition that would close in March for the Dexter Jones Award Residency that would take place at Chesterwood in June 2020. Shortly after, quarantine came down in Barcelona and I was stuck indoors with living expenses and no income. I stayed at my studio for weeks to complete the various maquettes I needed in order to qualify to apply for the Dexter Jones Award residency. I knew the residency included a stipend so I hoped if I won, I would only need to make things work until June.

The composition for Gorgons was becoming chaotic with my plans to include a bunch of hands. For better or worse, in my rush to complete the sculpture enough for photographs on the deadline of the competition, I failed to make the necessary adjustments to my armature and the face of fear fell clear off the sculpt.

The application submitted, I left my studio to wait out the full quarantine in my room. … …

With no foreseeable end to the pandemic, two jobs short, and uncertain whether my teaching position would be back, I made the decision to return to the United States.

Teaching figurative sculpture did not transfer well to Minnesota. Neither did my understanding of adult life to be honest. So many things that are common sense here were complete mysteries to me. I am from the Midwest, but I had never lived as an independent adult there. The unexpected complications and expenses that are the daily life here piled on top of reconnecting with family and missing friends and community in Barcelona …made for a difficult transition.

While waiting for the residency that had been postponed once and again was long, it was probably for the best since it gave me the time to get a car, save up for the trip to Massachusetts and the project.

Some of the reasons I chose to sculpt Gorgons during this residency with a solid month dedicated to sculpture are:

As an homage to the artists before me who depicted histories through their interpretations of classical mythology.

As a reminder to all of us that just as one must walk fully around the sculpture to see all the faces, so do we need to make a more conscious effort to get to know one another.

Mental disorders, anxiety and depression are so, so prevalent and paralyzing to many people today. I hope that this sculpture functions as acknowledgement of these issues and as prompt for open discussion for those who are struggling and the loved ones in their lives.

Thanks for your interest in this project.

Sincerely,

Gabrielle Trom