John Gibson’s “Venus kissing Cupid” (Gibson, 1930) featured within the Usher Gallery is our focal point within our performance. We were drawn to the piece through its display of the woman’s physicality and the embrace of women and children. Researching the relationship between the two Gods I discovered that they are thought to be mother and son. With this new context of the statue in mind it changed our interpretation of the piece being focused on women’s assets. Referring to the story of Cupid and Psyche, aspects of Venus’s jealous and dark nature can be exploited. It is said that the goddess of love grew jealous of the attention psyche was gaining from her on-lookers, therefore she asked Cupid to shoot her with one of his arrows so that Psyche would fall in love with a monster. Once Cupid saw how beautiful Psyche was, however, he “dropped the arrow meant for her and pricked himself, and fell in love with her” (About.com, 2015).
Story has it that although Psyche was beautiful, no one would marry her. So her parents visited an oracle who told them that she was destined to marry a monster. They were then instructed to leave their daughter on top of the mountain, a west wind took her to a palace whereby her husband visited her by night. She was instructed by her husband that she must never come looking for him. Following a visit from Psyches jealous sisters who persuaded her that her husband was simply fattening her up so that he could eat her, Psyche set on an adventure to kill the beast her sister portrayed. When Psyche seen how beautiful her husband (Cupid) was she accidently woke him in which he disappeared along with the palace Psyche had been calling home. In desperation Psyche approached Venus who was “still angry, the goddess set various tasks for Psyche, all of which she passed, with a bit of help from ants and river gods” (About.com, 2015). Cupid learnt about his mother’s actions and approached Jupiter to stop Venus’ actions. Cupid immediately sought to marry Psyche (whom was made a god) and thus lived happily ever after.
This story clearly displays the ugliness in physical beauty, represented through the envious nature of Venus. These attributes are something in which we could explore within our performance. I guess a great place to start when exploring physical beauty is what defines beauty? What makes someone beautiful, and whether or not beauty is made and not simply given to someone through genes? The cliché of using make up to enhance beauty is a given, but what I want to explore is how a person becomes a more beautiful version of themselves, the process of creating something beautiful. It seems as though there is no desire for women or men for that matter to explore this process, say how many hours a super model spend in the gym? I’m guessing a lot, but wouldn’t it be interesting to smell the stench left after that work out, yet all we see is this perfected and edited image on the screen, often edited to make the model skinnier than they already are. It makes you wonder whether true desirable beauty displayed all over the media is realistic, if these ‘perfect’ faces shown all over our magazines are being edited, is the modern idea of beauty an unrealistic and unreachable target. Women are desiring to be these icons that they see and seem to be chasing an unattainable prize.

About.com Education, (2015). Classic Myths and Legends You Should Know. [online] Available at: http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_4.htm [Accessed 20 Apr. 2015].

Gibson, J. (1930). Venus Kissing Cupid. Lincoln: The Usher Gallery.