Pediments

Antonakis Christodoulou

Bird Pediment

East Pediment

West Pediment

Third Pediment

Hesiod and the Masters of the Universe

While I was working on “The Third Pediment”, I was reading Hesiod's Theogony. During the day I was replacing the classical period sculptures with mutated toy characters on the virtual reality of my computer's screen and during the night I was travelling in the universe of the cosmogony myths. I was illustrating in my mind every phrase of the poem, I was giving form to all the gods and the creatures I encountered, as if I had no previous reference, as if I had never read about them, as if they where fragments of my imagination.

In a distant galaxy, in a planet called Eternia, the adventures of He-man and the Masters of the Universe seem familiar. Many times it is the name, other times it is the figure, or even, it is the whole story that is born using previous mythological elements. The Cosmogony myths, like the ones we encounter in Theogony exist in every nation's mythology and they share related characteristics. It is believed that the creation and the evolution of the world as they are presented in the poetry of Hesiod originated from the East and came to Greece through Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia Minor (Ionians).

Theogony constitutes the first attempt to systematize Greek mythology. He-man and the Masters of the Universe could be considered as a modern mythological system created in order to promote in the market a series of toys and therefore the only reason to the existence of these myths would be the commercial campaign of a mass production product. In the third pediment, every mutant enacts a hero from the myth of goddess Athena's birth, exactly as it is presented on the Parthenon's east pediment or, to be more accurate, on the most likely versions of the pediment’s true condition, as proposed by many different researchers. Thus, in effect, it is a new way of representing the pediments, with elements from the future, based on a past we call Greek mythology.

This pediment is in the void (chaos) and the story begins with the birth of the Fates, which many believe them to be the three Hesperides but which appear with the form of Modulok and Multi-bot (Evil Horde's ultimate transforming creatures).

…And Evil Horde bare Modulok and Multi-bot. And Beast Man wedded Teela the daughter of Man-At-Arms, and she bare him swift Two-bad. And Battle Cat was subject in love to Zodac and bare great Extendar and clear Mantenna and Snout Spout who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven. But Flogg (Brakk) was subject in love to Panthro and bare splendid children, Butthead, and gold-shod Chitara. So they send her to Fright Zone, to the rich land of Etheria, when she was ready to bare great Hordak, the youngest of her children. Now Kayo (Tatarus) took to wife the neat-anklet maid Optikk, daughter of He-man, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Hoove. Hordak came to the bed of all-nourishing Butthead and she bared white-armed Slush-Head (Kalamarr). But Hordak himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Evil-Lyn. But Chitara without union with Hordak bare famous Skeletor. And Mantisaur, the daughter of Hoove, bare to Hordak glorious Scare Glow (Evil ghost of Skeletor). And Monstroid, daughter of Night Stalker was joined with Hordak in love and bare him a splendid son, joyous Hydron…

Playing the role of the sculptures

Maria Maragou

Antonakis Christodoulou’s recent work is directed towards his familiar issue, that of the elaboration of myth, through which, two years ago, we were introduced to his work while still an inventive student at the Athens School of Fine Arts. With great passion, he sees again the pediment of the Parthenon monument whose sculptures exist in memory and in historians’ versions. He organizes the outline of the pediment as a space in the computer screens virtual reality and inside he positions the human being in static posses that act the roles of the sculptural decorations. The reminder of the invaluable monument is the framework in which he selectively passes fragments of contemporary history of art, of performance and body art, of transformations and variations and of Hollywood when it produces movies like Troy. The humour presupposed in the present in the artist himself in the role of god covers the anxiety of a divination of his reflection’s boundaries. Thus we have a young Greek artist, who wishes to interfere virtually in order to probably familiarize himself with the weight of a great art that is considered inaccessible.

Antonakis, disguises and transforms himself bringing the ancient monuments to the present with the intervention of a medium of photography and of technology participating in fragment on the pediment and the bas relief composition of the battle of the Titans acting with respect to the rules of the symmetry (what humour!!) taking part in the game of the sculptures immortality for a life span lasting as long as the spectators eye upon his work.