MEDUSA

“Inside and out, divine and demonic, we’re together and meshed.”

Make-up: Hazal Tanrıverdi
Photo: Hülya Ulam

“With the dualism it possesses, Medusa is a figure nested in fears regarding women of masculine history that’s faltering between sacred mother and tempting, reprobate Lilith. This journey that was launched with myth is actually completely mental. I’m touching the two Medusa heads used as base for columns at the northwest corner of the Basilica Cistern, and I’m listening to the things the stones tell me. The ancient echo that flows from them streams heart beats of sorrow to the water, and the water gradually heats up. Even the fish in the pools have sharp, strange looks and almost ugly silhouettes.”

Basilica Cistern/İstanbul
Photo: Mehmet Çeliksan

Medusa Pedestal/Basilica Cistern
Photo: Mehmet Çeliksan

"My existence is both a mirror and death. Those who look at Medusa are imprisoned by her demonic stare and turn into stone, but I am a mirror, I reflect the evil inside you back at you. I’m among the creatures that stand guard in Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy, in Milton’s Paradise Lost." 

"... My name echoes in the underworld for my duty is to keep the living away from this world. Just like at Hades, you cannot look at me; would you look at Death? Would you look at Medusa? It’s a poetic death those who catch my eyes taste."

"It’s a poetic death those who catch my eyes taste. Or it’s that fleeting moment that death and love meets. Their hearts are petrified, metaphorically, and filled with melancholy; it’s some sort of coup de foudre  that they experience."  

Make-up: Hazal Tanrıverdi
Photo: Hülya Ulam

"...Now, here, my existence is flickering like a candle light in anacrusis melodies, in the slightest uneasiness of thoughts." 

“Inside and out, divine and demonic, we’re together and meshed.”

Make-up: Hazal Tanrıverdi

Photo: Hülya Ulam

About the Book

Medusa character is portrayed from my horror story called Medusa that took part in the anthology "Women in the Dark" compiled by author Orkide Ünsür and published by Bilgi Publishing House on March 2018.


Medusa is translated into English by translator Yasemin Yener from Bilgi Publishing House and published by Trafika Europe on December 2019.

Trafika Europa - 16th Issue: Turkish Delight

Medusa delight can be found from page 242...

https://cld.bz/users/user-N5y4U8g/Trafika-Europe-Quarterly/TE16-Turkish-Delight

Make-up: 

Hazal Tarıverdi
https://www.instagram.com/hazaltanriverdi_sfx/
https://tr-tr.facebook.com/people/HazalTanrıverdi

Photographs :

Mehmet Çeliksan (Basilica Cistern ve Medusa Pedestal) 
http://www.mehmetceliksan.com/


Hülya Ulam
https://500px.com/hlyaulam