Victoria Rance and Ruken Aslan
curated by Denizhan Özer
Chalabi Gallery Istanbul Turkey
from 10th May to 23rd
June 2012
Sculpture, animation and digital images
Accoutrement of Perseus 2012
Sculpture, animation and digital images
Accoutrement of Perseus 2012
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Perseus in Pursuit 2012
Digital Print 76 x 101cm
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Perseus Victorious 2012
Digital Print 76 x 101cm
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Medusa 2012
Digital print 76 x 101 cm
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Cole as Perseus 2012
Digital print 76 x 101 cm
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Catalogue Text:
The work for this exhibition began when I saw the huge
column on Medusa’s head in the Byzantine Basilica
Cisterns (or Yerebatan Sarnici) in Istanbul. I was awe struck by
the chthonic nature of the gigantic stone head upside-down in the water
under the city. It felt deeply symbolic and mysterious, as though the city was
founded, or rather that era of the city was founded, on the suppression of
the power of the feminine; even though here it is dark, deep and destructive.
And so powerful that it turns people to stone.
When I returned to London I began to make work about it. I discovered
that on top of the column at Cemberlitas in Istanbul, Constantine had
been depicted as the sun god Apollo with the rays around his head going
outwards – the powerful energy here is masculine: extrovert, creative and
successful. The more I thought and read about Medusa and her story, the more I
also thought about Perseus as a counterpart, and I was interested
in all the equipment, support and magic help from the gods which the stories
say he had needed to behead her. I envisaged him as a young boy and thought of
opposites, male and female, youth and age, beauty and horror. 
I made an aluminium version of Medusa’s hair as a head dress, and when my niece Nina Villanueva Rance, a dancer, came to visit my studio to interact with another sculpture, she saw it and asked to try it on. I subsequently worked digitally on the photographs of her, and made an animation. My son, Jethro Pemberton, a composer, wrote music for it. To me this animation, the music and Nina's interaction re-established Medusa’s power and I wanted to explore the other half of the equation – the male power which pursued, challenged and beheaded her, in effect stealing her vitality, as the force of her head retained the power to turn to stone, and has been used for centuries to ward off evil on armour and buildings. (The nazar, evil eye, or sometimes ‘eye of medusa’ is a remnant of this, and is a charm or amulet to ward off envy.)
I continued to make more
of the accoutrements that Perseus needed, as I had already made the flying
shoes that were given him by Hermes, and his Helmet of Invisibility (or
war cap of Hades). I made his sickle ( or ‘falchion’ in Roman texts and
also used by Hades) and also his shield which was lent by Athena, wanting
them all small enough for my younger son to play with. Then I saw in the
British Museum a suit of armour made of crocodile skin which had been used
ritually by Romans in Egypt. It carries a deep ancient power, with something of
the prehistoric which crocodiles possess. I modelled some armour plating on
this for Perseus. Some stories say Perseus carried a ‘kibisis’ or wallet
which he put Medusa’s head in after cutting it off, and as I made this I found
myself integrating the image of the stone face from the cistern within
the structure of the bag, and it gradually became a cage. The second
animation I made is of my younger son Cole acting as Perseus and in
pursuit of Medusa, and what becomes of them both in the animation remains ambiguous.
