Gozo Hermafrodita 

Curator: Felicien Rops’ watercolor, entitled *Gozo Hermafrodita*, presents us with an evocative, if not entirely dated, vision of mythology. Editor: Oh, my stars! Look at that abandon. The watery wash of the watercolor gives this…creature…a dreamlike quality, as if it were exhaled from a collective unconscious. Those cymbals seem almost weightless in their grasp. Curator: Rops was working within a cultural context heavily influenced by Symbolism and the resurgence of interest in classical themes. These mythical figures allowed for explorations of sensuality and, importantly, challenged conventional norms, though filtered through a decidedly male gaze. Editor: True, that "male gaze"…but consider the androgyny! It’s this rebellious declaration that resonates. A joyful subversion of binaries. And that slight knowing smirk as the figure looks at us…is it amused? Challenging? Seduced? Curator: Such images circulated, quite pointedly, in intellectual circles that were expanding, in the latter decades of the 19th century, and the dialogue surrounding these figures became very contested; the debates over what was morally permissable raged between academic art and these kinds of private images made for personal consumption, especially. Editor: Precisely. This piece speaks to something raw and untamed in our inner lives. And that base relief sculpture on the lower portion – chaos on the horizontal to hold that playful dance on the vertical... Brilliant balance! I think it would provoke the right sort of person today too. Curator: It undeniably opens conversations about how art, particularly in the context of mythology, served—and serves—as a site for both societal enforcement of normative concepts of the body, and a space for resistance through subversive or imaginative alternatives. Thanks to Rops, we see that push-pull so dramatically illustrated. Editor: Beautiful. Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel the urgent need to go buy some tiny golden cymbals.