Step 1
Selected Sculpture: Aphrodite
Artist: Roman copy of Greek Sculpture by Praxiteles
Step 2
The sculpture depicts the bust of a woman who appears to be wearing a headband and loose top, with curly hair and an indifferent facial expression. Upon further examination, this is not just any woman, it is the Greek goddess of beauty, love, and desire, Aphrodite. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is a strong, powerful, well-known goddess and just her bust alone represents the passion and longing that accompanies love in relationships. Anyone who knows Greek mythology would recognize this head, and associate her with the idealization of beauty, motherhood, desire, and femininity, and her indifferent expression shows how powerful of a symbol she is, that she could even be understood with a straight face. Through distorting this sculpture, I aim to explore the theme that beauty lies in the eyes of its beholder. There is no one definition of what beauty is, but it is a concept that can be interpreted in many ways. What one may see as garbage, another may view as a masterpiece, and vice versa. I plan on warping the face through twisting and stretching it, then adding components to the bust that others may view as ‘gross’, to create a juxtaposition between beauty and disgust. I may line up three versions of Aphrodite’s bust alongside each other, the first one being the original, ‘classically beautiful’ sculpture, the second being slightly morphed, and the third being completely distorted, to show how beauty can take many forms.
Step 3
