GLISTENING GORGONS!

My newest site specific ground work Gateway to Infinity (An Anti-monument) has now been open for public engagement on the Rose Kennedy Greenway (downtown Boston) for several months. Visitors of all sorts have spun in and out of the labyrinth’s three nested spirals, circling a central “Anti-Monument”, a whirling portal facing the sky. Solar rays have blessed the artwork daily, from the blazing Solstice to dimming Equinox. Many of you met myself, my collaborators and curator Dr. Audrey Lopez on site for its June 21 activation. Together, three gleaming Gorgons and a sea of sun goths invoked Medusa consciousness in broad, long daylight.

My last newsletter brought you behind the scenes of its labor intensive creation. If you missed that newsletter, it’s archived here: Sun Goths! Miraculous Monsters! It also outlined the layered concepts surrounding my choice to create an Anti-Monument after many years of framing my groundworks as “horizontal monuments” and “altars to the sky”. With RE and UN Monument initiatives cropping up around the country, the Boston Globe called this work “ahead of the curve” 🐍

SHORT FILM

Triskele & The Monster’s Tools: A Solstice Invocation of Medusa Consciousness

Features the ritual performed on the Summer Solstice when the Gateway to Infinity groundwork was revealed to the public. Collaborating artists center the myth and legacy of Medusa as a symbol of survival and transformation in the face of patriarchal violence and domination represented by the formerly beheaded Columbus monument. On the longest day of the year, the artists invited guests to enter the artwork and participate via printed paper talismans, collective movement, and personal family heirlooms. Activating the work with stones, fire, smoke and bells they walked the triple spiral labyrinth together to process the heavy history and energy of the space. Three gorgons called upon the beaming sun, salty ocean, and three conjunct planetary bodies – the Moon, Venus, and Mars – to aid in a regenerative alchemical process, connecting the head to the heart.

Ash Capachione has composed a six minute experimental video artwork complete with original sound and animations they combined with their own documentation and aerial footage shot by Chris Rucinski. Follow Ash on insta @Helixhand for rad visuals that will make your eyes bleed.

PUBLICATION

MEDUSA ~ Myth, Memory, (Anti) Monument: Transforming Histories. Beheading Binaries. Waking the Monster’s Tools.

A fifty-six page, six color risograph zine designed and printed by Snake Hair including writings that contextualize the site-specific public artwork, ritual, and film on mythological, historical, political and poetic grounds.

Essays include an Introduction by art historian Liz Andres, and short essays- Triskele & The Monster’s Tools: Resurrecting the Anti-Monument by artist Maria Molteni, Medusa & the Radiance of the Night Sect by astrologer Laura Campagna, and Myths, Rewritten Histories, and the Power of Decapitation by artist Vin Caponigro.

How can I get a zine?

A number of copies of the zine are stocked on site (next to the Greenway Carousel in downtown Boston). If you’re remote or unable to get to the mural site and want the basic full color zine, you can simply Venmo me @Maria-Molteni between $7 and $20 (sliding scale) and I’ll ship you one. If you choose this option, be sure to insert the following into the Venmo comment:

• 1) your full name

• 2) complete mailing address

• 3) e-mail address (for shipping confirmation)

OR order limited artist edition issues here

• $23 MEDUSA Zine ~ Artist's Mark: signed copy

• $33 MEDUSA Zine ~ Gorgon Halo: signed + 3 holographic Gorgoneion coin stickers

10% OF SALES WILL GO TO UNITED AMERICAN INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

Finally, Each of my Patreon supporters who opt in will be gifted a zine in the mail!

Just want to read the essays?

If you’re just dying to read our essays while the energy is fierce, there’s a black and white PDF posted for free on our project page (Example spreads above). We’ll plan to leave it up free of cost at least through the Winter Solstice.

Boston Globe Feature

Also excited to share that the project was featured in the Boston Globe! Read a fun excerpt from Cate McQuaid’s Putting Monumentality Underfoot on the Greenway below:

A few ways to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day tomorrow:

Rally and March for a Statewide Indigenous Peoples Day in Massachusetts! Rename Faneuil Hall! 

  

Indigenous Peoples Day Family Program with Wampanoag Nation singers and dancers

WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?

The LATEST section of my site stays updated with press, events, exhibitions, etc. This fall I have a fun lineup of screenings, book fairs, conferences and openings. Here are a few:

HAPPENING THE SAME WEEKEND AS THE BABF IN ATLANTA…

BLOCK COP CITY!

If you haven’t caught wind of one of the most important organizing efforts of our time, please catch yourself up on the actions of the people of Georgia, including the brave forest defenders who have tirelessly worked, and in some cases risked their lives, to protect the Weelaunee Forest from becoming the site of a highly militarized police training facility- “Cop City”. The weekend of November 10-13th Block Copy City is calling all who can travel to Atlanta for a mass-mobilization- a series of non-violent actions and joyful events.

Learn more about how you can plug into these efforts near or far and please spread the word! Plans for such Cop Cities are in the works across the country and this movement has been the most successful mobilization of peaceful protest in quite a while.

WHAT’S IN THE STORE?

WANT “PRODUCT” PERKS?

Patreon followers get store discounts and freebies. Additionally, my supporters get access to my creative process, research and writing, global travel tips, studio process, access to private video artworks and lectures, artwork giveaways and more

Thanks so much for following along and being interested in what I’m up to. You can always unsubscribe or let me know if you want to opt out of my newsletters.

With love under the stars,

❤️‍🔥 Maria