“The utopia of the deserts is to be proud of mirages.”
(G. Moskvitin)
The author’s new stone carving work “Abundance” was planned as part of a series of miniatures created as a counterbalance to large stone sculptures. In these works the author’s metaphor is concentrated in minimal sizes.
The miniature is an image of a ram’s skull, polished by sand and time on the one hand, and ruined, as if nibbled, on the other.
In many cultures ram is a symbol of spring, rebirth, renewal, not by chance Aries is the first sign of the zodiac in the year, symbolizing the cyclical fertility of nature and the warmth of the sun during the March equinox. And the image of ram’s horns is a positive symbol of perseverance, persistence in achieving the goal.
But the image of the skull adds other intonations to the interpretation of this image, a certain finitude of existence. “The horn of plenty,” into which the large spiral-shaped horn of the ram is transformed, is empty, the symbol of purposefulness, strength and power, fertility and abundance – carried away by time. The miniature seems to remind us of “memento mori”. What is achieved by intentionally leaving the sculptor’s part of the natural texture of the stone unworked, leaving the stone as its natural collaborator – creates the effect of a skull destroyed by time or predators.
