Katja Toporski, 2016, USA

Vanitas = History × Space 2

Each of these pieces contains two fragments of castings of white material. One is in the shape of an hourglass; the other one is a 3D model taken by the Rosetta space probe from the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. They speak of space, its complex relation to time, and the human quest to understand our place in this world. The third component, a cylinder made of intricately pierced silver, connects those two parts together. Its pierced outlines follow the lines painted by the cavemen in the Chauvet cave in Southern France, depicting the hunting scenes of wild animals, bearing the mysteries of cultural expression. While the silver cylinders in the pieces add their own part to the story, silver is also employed to connect all three parts together, acting as the unifying material to all three.

Silver, porcelain, 8×6×4cm