Pomegranates
Pomegranates I found cracked, withered and blackened on a tree on the island of Cres in Croatia served as a model for this object. I cast the pomegranates and placed inside them garnets resembling red pomegranate seeds. The rawness of this object symbolizes extinction, imperfection and the transience of life. The pomegranate is also a symbol of fertility and the cycle of life. Iconographically, we find Adam and Eve standing under a pomegranate tree as the tree of knowledge.
The object Pomegranates is a kind of small memento mori, a reminder of the still lifes of the Dutch masters in the vanitas style.
material: bronze, garnets
weight: 315g
dimensions: 110 x 6 x 6cm
Lust for Eden Collection
The desire for paradise, whatever one imagines it to be, remains relevant for every generation. The objects in this collection are raw and intentionally imperfect, just as we ourselves are too. They are plants and fruits from our earthly garden of Eden. Because beauty does not rest in perfection, but in life itself, from youth to old age, so the plants and flowers are cracked or withered, but nonetheless still beautiful thanks to a metallic transformation.
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Hanuš Lamr's metal objects are inspired exclusively by nature. With the enthusiasm of an explorer, he brings into focus the delicate shape
of flowers, twigs and other natural objects which, cast in metal, reveal their finest details. The task of the artist is not to succumb to the
temptation to improve upon a natural design, but to be guided by its structure, and, with a sense of respect for its immutable perfection, to
render a coda. Rather than jewelry in the traditional sense of the word, these objects are a kind of sacrament. He immerses fragile
honeycombs, dry leaves, fruits and twigs or swollen chestnut blossoms in wax, then casts them in silver or bronze. The original model burns
away during casting, so each result is unique, without the possibility of replication. Fragile metal artefacts are created, conjoined in a surreal
fusion, sometimes supplemented with glass shards or stones. Hanuš Lamr transforms leftover fragments of authentic natural materials into
relics embodying the age-old, futile desire to immortalize the ephemeral, to touch the untouchable: intactum tangere.
text: Terezia Zemánková