Mythos

Patterson Webster
Mythos 2019 – continuing
Slate, copper and silver wire, corrugated tin,
Styrofoam, insulating foam, cedar stump, mirror
Collection of the artist

A wooden signpost burned with the word Mythos points into the woods, towards a series of installations that re-interpret stories and concepts from Greek mythology. A large piece of slate shaped like an arrowhead points skyward, calling to mind mythological tales about Diana, the huntress, or Acteon, the hunter who became the hunted.

The trail leads to a giant spider web, 7 x 8 ft, stretched between two trees. Visible through the web are figures ranging from 3-6 feet in height. Shaped like herms, square stone pillars used to mark property boundaries in ancient Greece and Rome, these column-like figures suggest men turned to stone by Medusa’s gaze. The trail then passes past tangled tree roots that suggest the snake-haired Medusa and tree bolls on stakes that suggest severed heads before it climbs a nearby hilltop where a 10-ft corrugated tin column stands on a base with the words Here Hear Hera. The words link the voice of the original Mother Earth, later co-opted to become the wife of the God Zeus, with birdsongs, the voice of the wind and other sounds of nature.

The trail continues towards another corrugated tin column and a mirrored circle. Angled on the ground, the mirror reflects a view chosen by the viewer, either of the forest alone or herself within it.