Bloody Teeth, Seeds and Mediators, 2023

Glass

I search for unifying objects and symbols. The increase in online hate and current deeply polarized views has entered my subconscious. I have vivid bloody dreams in which my teeth fall out. Loewenberg attributes these dreams to our minds processing the day's events. Have we said too little or too much about the most important things to us?

Historically, pomegranate seeds have been long designated as nature's tooth-shaped tooth fixers. I am interested in these visual associations, assigning medicinal properties and sacred symbolism through anthropomorphising the botanical world. Across cultures and epochs, the pomegranate has woven itself equally into the fabric of religion, myth, and culture. Emerging as a symbol of unity and interconnectedness, its many seeds mirror the myriad threads that bind us to each other, a silent storyteller in the garden of symbolism.

Aesop's fables, the Doctrine of Signatures, Buddhists, Imams, Popes, and Rabbis have all found refuge within the jewel-like flesh. Revered for its storytelling abilities. If the pomegranate embodies contradictions, it must have found a way to mediate balance. In the quiet contemplation of the humble pomegranate, it is a fruit that invites us to peel away the surface and savour our commonalities.