MELUSINE

Mix media installation, 2025
Collaboration with Eva Novakova

 

WHISPERS OF THE GLASS SERPENT

Performance, 2024
Collaboration with Eva Novakova

Melusine is a collaborative project between artists Lucie Kordacova and Eva Novakova which celebrates the European folklore figure of Melusine and her tragic story. Melusine, a mythical figure known for her ability to transform between human and serpent forms - a creature half-water spirit and half-human - embodies the concept of shapeshifting, representing fluidity and the seamless blending of different identities. Glass, similarly, is a shapeshifter in the world of materials; it can be moulded, blown, and sculpted into a myriad of forms while maintaining its inherent properties of transparency and reflection. It can be reshaped again and again. In the myth Melusine has ten sons all of whom carry some animalistic features due to Melusine’s magic. One has a claw, another the tooth of a boar and so on. As a result she is blamed for poisoning the royal bloodline. Here these hybrid human-animal sons are represented through glass.


The performance piece ‘Whispers of the Glass Serpent’ originally performed in Biot, France in September 2024, reimagines the myth of Melusine through the use of glass costumes and props. Three performers embody different aspects of Melusine: one with a serpent tail, another with dragon wings, and the third with diverse animal features symbolising Melusine's sons. In the performance the shapeshifters converge and separate. The performers embodying Melusine offer up the animal parts of their costumes, putting an end to Melusine's shapeshifting, and representing the disharmony between the human and natural world.


The 12 glass objects of various sizes were created using the lost-wax technique and are made of uranium coloured glass. This process generates an effect by which the glass changes colour depending on the light source, ranging from grey to green, yellow to pink shades. These objects are chained together and worn by a performer representing Melusine. A total of 5 dresses were produced and were made from polyester which had been digitally printed with a unique pattern. The patterns are further exaggerated with additional hand drawing and adhesives melted onto the fabric.  The video of the performance is displayed in a frame made of wood and foam clay painted with acrylic, and spray painted using a stencil based on the pattern used on the dresses. Additional elements of the exhibition are also made using wood decorated in the same process. The mask with antlers was made with foam clay, aluminium and wire and spray painted.


Images of installation by Peter Martin @sharedprogramme and Lucie Kordacova
Images of performance by BF Studio
Development of the performance was produced with financial support of the European Union, Creative Europe, Goethe Institute