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Part 2: “Thetis” by Casper Gras depicts the Greek goddess Thetis who is known for her feminine beauty and motherly tendencies. She is in a contemplative pose where she is seen in drapings with her hair in an updo. She is sitting and holding a swan-like animal very sternly with a hand around its base and a hand around its throat. Given the context of who Thetis is, I deduct that this sculpture is about motherly protection and sacrifice. While she is seen to be hurting the swan, I think that she is still depicted to be graceful. I think that this sends the message about duality and while women are thought to be pure but they can also be “dangerous”. The drapings on Thetis have the connotation of an ideal being such as a Greek goddess. I also think the drapings give a sense of the importance ancient Greece has placed on beauty and the human experience. The swan only strengthens the connotations of beauty and grace that Thetis already depicts. Also both women and swans signify purity and innocence. I have different ideas of ways to distort this sculpture. One of the ways I think I could distort it is by adding a feminine figure standing behind Thetis offering a supportive hand on the shoulder. By adding this figure, I think it would send a message regarding motherly figures and support. It would represent the ways in which all of our maternal figures are still with us today through the impact they’ve had on our lives. I was also thinking about distorting Thetis through entangling Thetis with the swan. I think that swirling the two figures together could offer an interesting perspective of animal and human cohabitation and the way we interact with each other. Lastly, I think it would be interesting to distort the sculpture by making the swan appear abnormally small, to suggest how we often dominate nature whether that be a good thing or bad thing. Or in reverse, making Thetis small could offer commentary about how we are seen to be the lesser beings from the ways we have destroyed our environment.
Part 3:
