ovi ova ovum

This series, titled OviOvaOvum, was made in response to a curious gift: a set of emu eggshells that contained the petrified bodies of developing chicks. Motivated by the beauty and emotion of the birds and intrigued by the notion of body as object, I began to work with the gift sculpturally. In this series of work I closely examine the fragility of life and the thin veil of death, as the sculptures and the birds themselves speak to the emotional contours of illness, rejuvenation, loss, and comfort. My final sculptural act for the series was to release the bird’s body through the pyre of a wood fired kiln, the flash of which remains on the ceramic sphere presented, evoking the natural cycle of birth and death.