This triptych is made by marbling white and clay by kneading and twisting, then cutting the clay lump into thin slices which are then inserted into the black clay boards while still in a plastic mode. Hence, the marbled patterns become similar, but each slightly different from the other.
The Viral Bat triptych, The Animal Strikes Back, is made by marbling, kneading and twisting black and white porcelain clay, then sliced, combined and inserted into black clay boards when still wet. The result of this process is s number of similar, but slightly different shapes, which are seen in this triptych as variants of what can be recognised as a series of bats, or, alternatively, as one bat slightly moving. This image emerged during the first weeks of the Covid 19 pandemic, causing suffering and death all over the world. The bats on my working desk became a sinister and ominous reminder of the threat that had just struck the world.
Artistic Research Approach
The process of making these figures is the result of associative and analogical thinking, linked to the ancient concept of Mimesis, as described by Aristotle in the ancient Greece, and Walter Benjamin in the last century. In this respect, Mimesis is about both recognition and representation: I recognised the bird-like shapes in the clay slices, and enhanced them by combining symmetric forms into bats, that were slightly changing and moving across the triptych. Hence, from the recognition of the bat-like shapes, I enhanced a representation of bats.