The lightness of the gaze
The weight of objects

“Yet it is less the horror than the grace
Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone,
Whereon the lineaments of that dead face
Are graven, till the characters be grown
Into itself, and thought no more can trace;
’Tis the melodious hue of beauty thrown
Athwart the darkness and the glare of pain,
Which humanize and harmonize the strain.”

• Percy Bysshe Shelley
  On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci 

My interest in Medusa mythology is its connection to contemporary aesthetics that focus on the reversal of the gaze and on the liveliness of objects. The capturing of ancient art objects through a practice of image–memory, image–making, and image–viewing connects to my identity as a museum worker looking at objects up close, looking after objects, being in their presence, and in the presence of their makers.

The petrification of Medusa marks the passage from life to image. My objects hold both the gaze and the memory of the object in translucent weight. This translucency, like a watery pool, promotes ambiguity, a sense of mystery and complexity that allows multiple understandings of what an object, a space,  or an idea can be. Perhaps above all, the use of translucent materials enables a kind of uncertainty, a vagueness that reinforces the need to seek out visibility.

The image of the object becomes an object again.

Artist Bio

Jennifer Liston Munson is a Boston-based artist whose work is held in many private and corporate collections. Her high-tech-low tech process combines her training as a painter and fiber artist with her interest in electronic imaging, film, and photography. Liston Munson received an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Loughborough College of Art and Design in England. She has won many awards, including the 2001 Traveling Scholar award which culminated with a show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.