maenad

2021, Manship Artists Residency, Gloucester, MA

materials: stainless steel, polycarbonate, light
dimensions: 5.5′ x 5.5′ x 5.5′

At the Manship Art Residency a large granite basin next to the grape arbor once harbored Paul Manship’s 1953 sculpture of a dancing nude maenad. Maenads are mythic female followers of Dionysus engaged in ecstatic, inebriated, and frenzied dancing. I filled the basin with a new dancing maenad and set her aglow her with wine colored light. She transitions from first blush to fully flushed as evening deepens into night. Hopefully she lives up to her mythic reputation.