For Lethe’s preliminary study, I wanted to explore the sense of loss. I found that there is a strong tendency to hold onto a passing moment. The need to make it permanent. But in the process of duplication there will always be a certain loss. I wanted to show that loss and make visible (and tangible even) what it looks like to hold on to something in vain.

I started by claying one tooth and then tried to make the same tooth over and over. Teeth are an unique form of humans (much like a fingerprint) or animals. In addition, it is the part which does not perish after death. It is abiding data of something that once was. I wanted to play with that idea in physical material. Bringing the abstract process of moment-duplication into our tangible, physical realm.

What happens if someone tries to duplicate a shape to preserve a moment? Even if you try with all your willpower, the outcome will never be like the original. It is always a reflection of what it really was. It reminds me of Plato’s cave of ideas. Where everything essentially is a copy of a copy. It is moving further and further away from its original shape. In the process of duplication in which more is actually lost than gained.
The material and passage of time also is an important factor here. The longer you work with the clay, the drier it becomes. In the end you will merely be left with crumbly clay that cannot be worked with and watered down reflections of what once was.