Marcin Rusak Tephra Vase 006

The phallic forms of the new Tephra Vases come from the study of plants’ anatomy and refer to their reproductive parts: ovaries and stigmas, anthers and their filaments – a symbol of nature’s creativity. Metallised in Zinc, Tephra Vase 006 borrows from the unexpected complexity of botanic forms, with the seeds of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) providing additional erotic connotations. Drawing its name from the geological term indicating the petrified fragments spat from volcanoes, the objects from the Tephra collection are built using specially treated flowers mounted on sculptural forms made of metal and jute, metallised using a thermo-coating technique that covers the dense textures in a paper-thin layer of molten metal, resulting in an almost Pompeiian effect of silhouettes covered in volcanic debris.