Medea 

A tragic Heroine Retold

This sculpture is based on the interpretation of Medea in the retelling of the ancient Greek Euripides tragedy by the German author Christa Wolf (1999, Medea. Stimmen, dtv, München; first published 1996). In the novel Medea: Voices, Medea is a tragic heroine who kills no one; a witch who only uses her powers for healing; and a daughter who assisted in the theft of her father’s Golden Fleece out of noble political motives. Christa Wolf has thus made the dominant contrast in her version of the ancient world not the usual one between Colchis and Corinth—between culture and barbarism—but one between an inhumane patriarchy and a more compassionate matriarchy, an opposition she had already explored in her lectures on Kassandra some years before.

Cited from:  Germany: Myth and Apologia in Christa Wolf’s Novel Medea. Voices. Yixu Lü, Institute for International Studies, University of Technology Sydney. 
Portal Vol. 1, No. 1 (2004) 

Mixed techniques (detail), 2018

95 x 60 x 55 cm

Laertes: father after all

Father of Odysseus and Ktimene, husband of Antiklea,
former ruler of Ithaca, Argonaut


Laertes

You don't 

have to prove 

yourself

anymore.

Your prospects

are covered 

with a gossamer 

veil of humility 

- only your 

memories keep 

you going, and 

maybe a trace 

of hope.

Birds fly on

and off in

shadows on 

the wall: food 

for dreamers 

and eager 

prophets.

Mixed techniques, 2020
48 x 27 x 33 cm

Overlooked Telemachos

Telemachus is the son of Odysseus and Penelope. He grows up in Ithaca during the absence of his father, among suitors who compete for the hand of his mother. The first four books of the Odyssey are about Telemachus, the so-called 'Telemachy'. In his book “The Many Minded Man. The Odyssee, psychology, and the therapy of epic”, Cornell University Press, 2020, Joel Christensen describes Telemachus's poor educational background and his toxic social environment surrounded by his mother's suitors. Christensen speaks of 'learned helplessness.' In this hopeless situation, the goddess Athena appears to encourage Telemachus. While Telemachus wants to evict the suitors, he does not feel strong enough to do so. Athena advises him to leave Ithaca to search for his father, and to gather different experiences from the ones he has known so far, so that he will be able to help his father upon his homecoming.






Mixed techniques, 2020
57 x 34 x 36 cm

Eumaeos, king's son and a slave 

Stolen dignity

Kidnapped son of a king, swineherd and friend of Odysseus, nevertheless a victim of ancient slavery

Like Eurykleia, Eumaeos is respected, nevertheless a slave: "Zeus, of the far-borne voice, takes away the half of a man's virtue, when the day of slavery comes upon him". 
(Homer, Odyssey, Book 17, 322-324)



Mixed techniques, 2020
43 x 31 x 38 cm

Odyssister - Ktimene 

Ktimene is the relatively unknown sister of Odysseus. She represents the dilemma of the second-born child, a girl, in a patriarchal ancient culture. She is mentioned by Eumaeus in the Odyssey: Homer, Odyssey (15.361 - 370).

Mixed techniques, 2020
46 x 26 x 33 cm

Prometheus, foresight

Titan
Husband of Pronoia


Prometheus

You – forward thinker – 

steal, with glow on your 

cheeks, the holy fire of

imagination from the gods, 

for the sake of civilization. 

Everything has its price,

and you know yours.

Zeus breaks with you,

and Hephaestus chains 

you on a rock, an eagle 

pecks your liver out, 

again and again, until 

Heracles frees you

from this tragic fate.

You're still warning your 

brother Epimetheus of the 

temptation of divine gifts. 

Nevertheless - the incorrigible 

hindsight thinker - marries the

beautiful Pandora, with her 

pernicious jar, that she

- Proto-Eva - cannot resist

for long, to misery of humanity.

Mixed techniques, 2020

42 x 28 x 34 cm

Odysseus on Skheria

Almost home, almost lost



Scheria is the home of the Phaeacians and the last destination of Odysseus before returning to his homeland, Ithaca. He landed on the coast of Scheria, exhausted after his shipwreck. Having lost everything, he was thrown back upon himself. Princess Nausikaa found him there and took care of him. Eventually, Odysseus also found himself here again, and perhaps finally in a purified form. 

Homer uses this stage in the Odyssey as a literary device to make Odysseus look back on his past years. Homer gives Odysseus the role of a reflecting storyteller and himself the role of the architect of the heroic epic.

Mixed techniques, 2020
24 x 34 x 34 cm

Homesick Antiklos

Agony



Greek warrior inside the Trojan horse

Helen circled the horse and imitated the voices of the warriors' wives. Antiklos was the only one who attempted to answer. Odysseus, who was next to him, shut his mouth so tight that Antiklos died.



Mixed techniques, 2018
85 x 30 x 50 cm 

Patroklos, beyond friendship

Close companion of Achilles
Killed by Hektor during the Trojan war




Broken

What is left when

there is nothing left? 

Bottomless space 

maybe, remains of a 

membrane, vibration 

of broken connection

perhaps, or the lack of 

amazement.

Mixed techniques, 2018
30 x 30 x 30 cm

Prometheus in doubt

Power of imagination

Prometheus is a Titan and the creator of humanity from clay in a variety of colors. Hesiod (late 8th century BC) is the first to write about Prometheus in his Theogony and Works and Days. Prometheus is mentioned as the son of the Titan Lapetus and Klymene, one of the Oceanids. His brothers are Menoetius, Atlas, and Epimetheus ("Afterthought"). The latter married Pandora, the first woman, who was a gift from the gods, but not without ulterior motives. Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind on earth. In my interpretation, he stole the power of imagination from the gods and gave it to humanity, making them equal to the gods and thereby making the gods redundant. He was terribly punished for this by Zeus, the supreme god, who is, of course, himself also a product of imagination—a figment.

Mixed techniques, 2018
30 x 30 x 30 cm

Companion of Odysseus

Odysseus left Ithaca with twelve ships to take part in the Trojan War. Men from prominent families accompanied him. Many of them remained nameless, as is often the case in history, where the main characters receive either honor or infamy, depending on the presence of mass support. In the case of Odysseus, things turned out badly for all his companions










Mixed techniques, 2017
25 x 25 x 25 cm

Cunning Odysseus

Mixed techniques, 2018
30 x 30 x 30 cm

Ikaros falling

Headless to the sun, wingless to the sea




Ikaros is the son of the famous architect and inventor Daedalos. Both were imprisoned by King Minos of Crete on suspicion of aiding Theseus in killing the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull who lived in a labyrinth designed by Daedalos. Daedalos made a device out of wax and feathers that would allow him and his son to fly out of their prison. He warned his son not to fly too high, as the sun would melt the wax. He also warned him not to fly too low, because the splashing seawater would make the feathers too heavy. Ikaros, in his enthusiasm for flying, forgot his father's advice and crashed into the Aegean Sea. In my imagination, Ikaros has lost not only his wings but also his head, as an expression of thoughtless recklessness.







Mixed techniques, 2018
95 x 70 x 100 cm

Alkinoos: a friend at the end

Odysseus is shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Scheria (Phaeacia in some translations). Alknoos is the wise king of the Phaeacians. He is married to the even wiser Arete. They have five sons and one daughter, Nausikaa. The daughter plays a special role in the story; she finds the castaway and takes care of him. She falls in love, but Odysseus holds off. According to some sources (Aristotle and Dictys of Crete), Nausikaa later marries the son of Odysseus and Penelope, Telemachos. Scheria is the last stage of Odysseus’ long journey. Alkinoos brings him home to Ithaka with an enormous number of gifts. During his stay on Scheria, Odysseus recounts his adventures to Alkinoos and his court. His storytelling to Alkinoos makes up a large part of Homer’s Odyssey (books 6 to 13). I tried to depict Alkinoos in a sculpture—not as an old man with a beard and the emblems of his dignity, but as the seafarer he is, with a hat to shield him from the cold winds, and as the father of a large family.


 

Alkinoos 

to Odysseus 

I couldn’t find 

your ship on 

my beaches
where you 

washed ashore,
neighter wreckage 

nor goods and 

chattels. Your past 
exclusively consists
of yourself. 

Your stories slowly 

come up. They resemble 

those epic songs of 

passing singers, about 

love and war, passion 
and suffering, recurring 

betrayal. I'll take you 

home, vagabond. 

Mixed techniques, 2021
76 x 28 x 29 cm

Zeus, Olympic CEO

Zeus is the supreme deity of the Greek pantheon and the ruler of all gods, governing fate, law, lightning, thunder, and the sky. He is the son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea, and the brother of Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, and Hades. He married his sister, Hera. He fathered many children, including Aphrodite, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Eris, Hephaestus, the Moirai, Pan, Persephone, Helen, Heracles, Minos, Perseus, and Sarpedon.







Mixed techniques, 2018
30 x 30 x 30 cm

Hephaistos, artist

Blacksmith. God of fire, metalworking, sculpture
Son of Zeus and Hera









Mixed techniques, 2018
30 x 30 x 30 cm

Polyphemos - Cyclope

Polyphemos is a one-eyed Cyclops, the son of the sea god Poseidon and the sea nymph Thoosa. He lives in a cave on an island, where he keeps a flock of sheep that he grazes daily. On his return journey to Ithaca, Odysseus and his men do not hesitate to plunder wherever they can. This is how they end up in the cave of Polyphemos. When the giant returns with his sheep, he places a large boulder in front of the entrance to his cave, devours some of Odysseus' men, and asks who his uninvited guests are. 

Odysseus introduces himself as 'Nobody'. The Greeks cannot remove the heavy boulder themselves, so attempting to kill the Cyclops is not an option; they would remain imprisoned and perish. Odysseus has brought strong wine and gives it to the giant to drink. He gets drunk. Using a joint effort, the Greeks take a wooden stake from the fire with a glowing tip and drive it into the giant's eye, blinding him. 

The next morning, the sheep have to leave the cave, and Polyphemos rolls the boulder aside. Odysseus and his men have tied groups of three sheep together and cling underneath the middle sheep. The giant feels the back of each sheep to check if there are any prisoners on it. Thus, the Greeks escape and make their way to their ship, shouting. The giant notices—too late—that his prisoners have fled. He roars out. Other Cyclopes shout from afar, asking what is wrong and whether he is being attacked by someone. 'By nobody!' cries Polyphemos. Back on the boats, Odysseus carelessly shouts that it was Odysseus of Ithaca who fooled him. Polyphemos then curses Odysseus and calls upon his father Poseidon to ensure that seafaring will no longer be a pleasure for the Greek from now on. And indeed, it won't be!

Mixed techniques, 2018
30 x 30 x 30 cm

Unbelievable Kassandra 

Trojan priestess of Apollo. Daughter of Priam and Hekabe. Her fate: never to be believed because of a curse by Apollo. As with Medea’s sculpture, my interpretation of Kassandra was inspired by a novel by the German writer Christa Wolf (1929–2011). Wolf tells the story of the siege of Troy from the perspective of the seer and priestess. Her story is an internal monologue about the course of her life and the decisions she made along the way. She knows she will soon be killed by the hand of Agamemnon’s wife, Klytamnestra Wolf gives Kassandra a strong voice—that of a vulnerable yet self-aware woman in a predominantly patriarchal society. Kassandra also tells the extraordinary story of a matriarchal counter-world located literally on the outskirts of the city. I opted for a torso. The contradictions in interpretation between the Homeric stories and those of Christa Wolf kept me from the explicit nature of a portrait.

Wolf, Christa. Cassandra. Trans. Jan van Heurck. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984.

Nancy Rabinowitz: Christa Wolf's Cassandra: Different times, different views.

Torso
Mixed techniques, 2018
90 x 55 x 40 cm

Iphigenia, cheated innocence

Iphigenia is the eldest daughter of King Agamemnon and his wife Klytaimnestra of Mykene. Agamemnon planned to sacrifice her at the insistence of the prophet Kalchas, as atonement for Agamemnon's insult to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Due to the conflict with the goddess—who made a deal with the god of the winds—Agamemnon could not sail to Troy because the wind had died down. As a result, the men of the Greek alliance began to murmur and mutiny.

Under false pretenses, he lured Iphigenia to Aulis, where she arrived accompanied by her mother. She was convinced that she was going to marry the hero Achilles, who knew nothing about the plan. In some sources, the goddess Artemis saved her in the nick of time and took her to Tauris to become her priestess. In other versions, she was transformed into the goddess Hekate.

After the Trojan War, Klytaimnestra killed her husband upon his return home for this terrible deed. Orestes, Iphigenia's brother, then killed his mother and was forced to flee. He landed in Tauris, where strangers were sacrificed as soon as they set foot on shore. However, he was saved by his sister, the priestess, who recognized him (Euripides: Iphigenia in Tauris).

I hope that my struggle to express this dramatic content is visible in my sculpture. As the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși once said: "Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the condition to make them."

Mixed techniques, 2020
100 x 80 x 40 cm (195 cm with chassis)

Victimised Polyxena

Victim of Femicide

Polyxena is the youngest daughter of Queen Hekabe and King Priamos of Troy. She is one of the many children of the royal couple, including the sister of: Hektor, Paris, Deïphobos, Helenos, Troïlos, Kreüsa and Kassandra. Achilles, the enemy of the Trojans, but they knew each other, fell in love with Polyxena. Achilles, however, died on the ramparts of Troy by an arrow from Paris that was guided to his sensitive heel by the god Apollo. Some time after his death, the spirit of Achilles appeared over his tomb and demanded that Polyxena should be sacrificed there. Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, kills the young girl, and then makes Hector's wife, Andromache, his bride. 

Homer doesn't talk about it. His story ended earlier than this moment. Euripides gives a detailed account of it in his drama "Hekabe", and Ovid also speaks of it in his "Metamorphoses" (XIII, 439 ff.). Euripides, in his drama "Trojan Women", elaborates on the fate of women after the conquest of Troy. It is a preview of the dark future of Hekabe, Kassandra, Polyxena and Andromache. The work was performed in 415 BC. and refers via the Trojan War to the then current Peloponnesian War. The play is an indictment of the destructive effect of imperialist wars, of guilt and responsibility and of loss of dignity.

Greek theatre director Themis Moumoulides puts it this way in the performance of his adaptation of "Iphigenia in Aulis" in September 2022 in Athens: 

"After twenty years of the Peloponnesian War, Euripides seems to be asking himself: “is a paradigm shift possible”? Two and a half thousand years later, and while we are experiencing the first symptoms of a dystopian future, which we have lost, we still wonder: “is a paradigm shift possible”? The question is unanswerable. Maybe someday civilization will shed its inherent, deadly discomfort. Perhaps one day progress will cease to ally itself with barbarism. Maybe someday…Until then, all we can do is tell the same story again and again, in all tones and in all ways, through the filter of our own time… “ 

Mixed techniques, 2021
50 x 38 x 32 cm

Trojan woman (1)

Trojan woman

I could have

easily run into 

you, just around 

a corner, or at 

the marketplace, 
 outside the city 

walls of Troy. Only 

coincidence stood 

in our way, and a 
 trifle like fourteen 
 centuries. You said 
 goodbye before I 
 could arrive.

Due to time, we 

had been separated 

from each other, your 

possible faces are 

anchored in my mind. 

They continuously
 change, just like the 

stories I'm telling 

about you.

(Detail) Mixed techniques, 2021
56 x 43 x 38 cm

Hektor, Prince of Troy

Hektor’s last fight

Daylight has not yet 

completely disappeared 

on the fields in front of 

the closed gates of 

my exalted city. 

The beast is coming, 

I am his prey. The child 

cries: "Daddy, daddy!" 

and I curse my fate. 

People stare as petrified 

from high walls to a king 

foretold, who never will

be one. 
 
 

The ruthless hunter 
 drives me three times 
 round the ramparts, 
 until I face him in despair. 

If I then fall, last dreams

and hope will also die

for those I love and leave
 too early.

Mixed techniques, 2021
45 (60 with pedestal) x 27 x 32 cm