Continuing the Anka’s cycle of rebirth, this work evokes life regaining movement through its rising body and layered wings opening outwards. The blending of earth, amber and burnt-brown tones on the surface symbolises the being that has passed through fire becoming one with nature again. Curving forms reaching out from the body in different directions express opening up, growing stronger and turning towards a new life after transformation. Anka III represents the reborn being’s return to the world and the continuity of life.
Taking the rebirth narrative of the mythological Anka (phoenix) as its starting point, the Anka Series explores the traces of transformation and memory through ceramic form. In the series the Anka moves away from its traditional depictions and becomes pared down; body, wing, neck and tail at times merge into a single fluid form, at times break apart and multiply, opening out into space.
Each sculpture is like a different state of the same being. The reds of fire, dark metallic surfaces and earthy browns represent the different thresholds between disappearance and renewed existence. The cracks, colour transitions and firing marks left on the ceramic surface are not hidden; instead they become part of the form as the memory of transformation.
In this series, therefore, rebirth does not mean the complete erasure of the past. With each transformation the Anka carries traces of its previous existence. It breaks, changes, takes shape again and rises.
Rather than a fresh start, the Anka Series is the story of becoming another existence while carrying the traces of the past.