Chapter 5: "Medusa"

Speaker 0 00:00:00 Chapter five, Medusa. This chapter describes Medusa by Ed Pian, created in 2012 and measuring 269 by 366 centimeters. It is two minutes long. Speaker 1 00:00:13 Tilt your head up and imagine you're standing underneath the canopy of a huge nooby tree, maybe a willow. The artist has created the tangled upper branches by cutting up the negative space from two different materials, crinkled, flattened, and layered on top of each other. Translucent Japanese paper called Shoji paper and reflective film. Similar to the material used on nighttime running outfits or highway signs, though it appears to be almost black. As you move closer, the spotlights above hit it and reveal a beautiful purple gray shimmer. The paper cutting has been intricately done with some branches almost as thin as a spider's web or strands of hair tangled. Together. Larger silhouette forms appear caught in the branches. This along with the title Medusa, evokes the long tresses of that fearsome and perhaps misunderstood mythological character. The artist has also cut small and medium circles in yellow, green, blue, orange, red, and purple from the stained material and affixed them to the tree silhouette so that they appear to be floating across the branches. These adornments, as PN has said, celebrate resilience and offer glimmer of hope. In troubled times trying to increase that glimmer, you could pull out your cell phone flashlight and the light bounces back even more strongly. The reveal stops you in your tracks, just like Medusa's provocative gaze. Speaker 0 00:01:40 To hear more about this work, play the next track, or move to the next stop. A straight line to the right for seven meters.