Terracotta Vessel with a Mask-Face and Climbing Primate

The Rider

This piece changes as you walk around it. From the front it shows an almost human face, with a round mouth open in a long cry and wide eye panels pierced with tiny holes. From the side, the same head stretches into the snout of an animal. Two creatures seem to live in one form.

And then there is a third. Clinging to the back of the head is a small primate, its arm thrown around the neck, its own mouth open as if it is calling too. It rides the larger figure the way a young animal rides its mother.

The body below is covered with a field of clay spikes, dense as a seed head or the skin of a hedgehog, and framed by spiked ridges. The texture is so strong it almost invites touch.

It is a work about relationships: between face and animal, between carrier and carried, between the smooth neck and the bristling body.

A globular vessel whose neck rises into a head with a round, open mouth, large perforated eye panels and pierced ears. Seen from the side, the face lengthens into an animal snout. A small primate clings to the back of the head, one arm wrapped around the neck.

A notched collar circles the base of the neck. The front of the body bears a dense panel of conical spikes, and spiked ribs divide the rest of the surface.