Goldie Poblador’s Artpace exhibition, The Rise of Medusa, is a descent into a subaquatic realm where light, scent, glass, and sound merge to form an environment that is at once fragile, haunting, and resilient. At the heart of the work is Medusa: a stage in the jellyfish’s life cycle as well as the mythic figure. From a goddess of power to a monstrous symbol rewritten by patriarchal voices, Medusa’s evolution echoes the ways bodies, ecosystems, and stories adapt, endure, and reclaim power. By entwining mythology with marine science, Poblador invites Artpace visitors to consider how transformation lies at the core of survival.
The gallery is bathed in a deep celestial blue, a color chosen to echo the vast skies of Texas and to evoke the sensation of plunging into oceanic darkness. Within this immersive atmosphere, nine glass sculptures stand and hang as if suspended in water, reminiscent of coral reefs and jellyfish. These works, made through lampworking, bear extraordinary detail despite their small scale. As light transforms them, they embody the monstrous feminine, a quiet force that grows larger than life through shadowy projection. Sound work by composer Ben Richter adds another layer, resonating with tones derived from instruments shaped to accompany the glass forms, amplifying the sensation of inhabiting a marine environment.
Equally transformative are the scents that permeate the exhibition, developed in collaboration with perfumer and artist M. Dougherty. Together, they evoke both ecological devastation and the persistence of life. The first impression, Oil Slick, rises with metallic sharpness, acrid smoke, and the faintly decaying sweetness of contaminated waters. It clings to the air as oil clings to the sea; its suffocating presence recalling disasters that have scarred marine habitats.
Dead Coral follows with a mineralic, saline austerity. It’s acrid dryness mimics the earth’s bleaching reefs, a ghostly monument to climate change. Yet the experience culminates in Verde, a lush composition that carries the freshness of tropical florals and the brightness of citrus, mingling the imagined blossom of green mango flower with ylang-ylang and elemi. Their inclusion is not incidental: ylang-ylang, with its rich floral sweetness, and elemi, with its bright, resinous lift, have long held cultural and spiritual significance for Filipinos. In bringing these native materials into the gallery, Poblador anchors the work in Filipino identity, linking ecological resilience to cultural heritage and honoring the biodiversity of the Verde Island Passage, which scientists have called a global “hope spot.”
Through these layered experiences, The Rise of Medusa reframes fragility as strength. What may seem small (a jellyfish polyp, a coral colony, a drop of oil, or a single flower) is revealed as essential, resilient, and interconnected with human survival. By placing myth beside science, and letting scent, shadow, and sound magnify delicate forms into monumental presences, Goldie Poblador’s Artpace installation calls visitors to recognize that in the smallest creatures and the most overlooked systems lies a power that is not only enduring but vital to our own.
— Ada Smith Genitempo
Manager of Residencies and Exhibitions
