Meeting Point 02: ΜOMus-Museum Alex Mylona
Alex Mylona, Birth of Aphrodite, 1960
Hammered iron painted black, 350 x 90 x 15 cm
ΜOMus-Museum Alex Mylona Collection
Creative Audio Description MP02 ( / - x )
Creative description
“Birth of Aphrodite” was created in 1960. It is an abstract sculpture by Alex Mylona made of black-painted hammered iron, the shape of which is depicted in relief on the postcard. It is three and a half metres high (about the height of two people) and one metre wide, two-dimensional, and supported on the wall by spacers at the back.
Its arrangement is vertical, and its form is elongated. The sculpture begins at the top with a square form from which four thin spikes protrude, and the form becomes thinner as it extends downwards. Each side of the sculpture has the same number of spikes protruding from its vertical axis, suggesting the wave form of a cardiogram, a constellation, or the abstract shape of a rose with sharp thorns.
Starting from the myth of the birth of the goddess Aphrodite and her connection with the sea, Alex Mylona seems to have been inspired in the composition of the sculpture by the irregular and elongated shape of a purpura shell. However, the artist moved to a symbolic level, linking the sharpness of the sculpture to the struggle of women in a patriarchal society. As she said in an interview: “Aphrodite is trying to stand. We women try to stand in this male-dominated world and balance with our spikes. That’s our struggle.”
This artwork is one of the sculptures with which Alex Mylona represented Greece at the 1960 Venice Biennale. The common denominator of the compositions in this group of sculptures is geometricity, flatness of form, and a connection with ancient myths.
Photos from Meeting Point 02: MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona
The creative description of the artwork “Birth of Aphrodite” by Alex Mylona is the result of co-creation by the participants in Meeting Point 02: MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona.
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