Spring equinox figurines, 2021
Antoinette Nausikaä (NL, 1973) creates site-specific investigative projects in places where nature and culture coincide. It is the balance between the two that fascinates her. For her presentation at Balrom Project #3, Nausikaä selected works from her Mountains and Rivers projects and assembled a new installation.
In her installation, Nausikaä plays with the relation between the human abstract and the natural organic, the mundane and the transcendent. She is fascinated by the balance between nature and culture and the thought that nature can be seen as an integral part of our everyday life and ourselves.
Golden-glazed ceramic: Spring equinox figurines, Amsterdam 2021, with a 24 karat gold glaze. This new series was created in her studio in Amsterdam at the time of the last spring equinox on March 20th, 2021. While experiencing the lockdowns Antoinette Nausikaä got inspired by the continuous cycle of the sun and the transitions of the seasons throughout the year. These transitions are marked by the solstices and equinoxes. The spring equinox is a moment in the year when the sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are perfectly balanced in equal length. Throughout history, they have been celebrated with rituals and ceremonies. During these specific sacred moments, as a kind of ritual and a personal ode to the light, Antoinette Nausikaä retreats into her studio with a lump of clay to make the sculptures.
Porcelain: Blanc de Chines figurines, Dehua China 2015. The fragile white sculptures were made on location in the traditional Chinese porcelain town of Dehua, for her project Breathing Mountains. Dehua is known for the production of the famous "Blanc de Chine" which has been produced from the Ming dynasty. Until today Buddhist and Taoist figurines are the most famous products of Blanc de Chine.
Photograph: Isle, Paris 2020, shows a small scene, resembling an island in the sea, on a chipped wall. The image was taken in Paris last year while she was working on her project A River Runs Through Me.