I had the musician, singer, songwriter Montaigne on my list of potential subjects at the end of 2022 but it wasn't until April of 2023 that I got her email, in the midst of an intervention titled Hysteria at The Brett Whiteley Studio for The National 4.

I enjoyed not only their music but also their general sensibility and their flair for subtle historical references, most apparent in their choice of stage name. They expressed an interest in the mythology of medusa when I asked them which representation or painting from art history they were interested in re-imagining together. They came back immediately with the myth of medusa and that very day we had our first sitting at The Brett Whitely studio.

Medusa is a favorite subject of many famous works of art, the one that sticks out most being a work by Carrivagio of her decapitated head painted on a circular shield. Many artists have enjoyed depicting the monster during or after she was slain by Perseus who then pointed her dismembered head at the faces of his enemies to freeze them into stone with the power of her gaze. Why was she a monster? Because her appearance was deemed monstrous and she had inherent power in her gaze. Why was she made monstrous? Because as a young beautiful priestess she was raped by Poisidon and punished for it by her Godess. I hope I don't need to lay out in black and white why we both found this story more than enough reason to want to re-frame her representation, which time and again glorified her gory death.

For Montaigne the monster was a symbol of someone who chose to no longer conform and was punished for it. They later came out as non-binary which added another layer for me to this double sided work.

We decided to re-work the depiction of a young woman from the renaissance period 'Profile Portrait of a Young Lady' by Antonia del Pollaiulolo and Piero del Pollaiuolo. I changed the leafy embrodery on the bust and sleaves to foreshaddow her rape by Posidean, to depict sea creatures, tridents and tenticles. Using the convention of Renaissance double profile marriage portrait, we created a second mirrored portrait of the first which reflected the stony gaze of a future self, against the background of a reflective copper support. Their gazes meet across the divide of space and time. Medusa the monster looks regally back at their younger self transfixing them in place.