First Born

2019 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

33 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm

Rachel Rose

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First Born by Rachel Rose is part of a series of works titled Borns which expands on the artist’s longstanding interest in the organic shape of eggs. For this sculpture made of rock and glass the artist has created a milky glass-blown shape, almost like fabric in its form, which is draped over a metallic rock in the shape of an egg. For the artist, the egg is an alchemical symbol that is representative of conception and birth. Alchemical literature, such as the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz (1616) by the German author Johannes Valentinus Andreae informed the artist’s choice of hybridizing elemental substances from the earth. Though the separate elements of this work may appear texturally and aesthetically discrete in their material composition, this sculpture is actually made from a single material—sand—in two different physical and temporal states. Both glass and rock are made of sand; the former is liquid sand and the latter is sand that has been compressed over thousands of years. The temporal relationship between materials in this series of sculptures positions the egg as an analogy for conception; a vessel from which creation derives.

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Rachel Rose is a visual artist known for her video installations that merge moving images and sound within nuanced environments connecting them to broader subjects. Her work investigates subjects as diverse as cryogenics, the American Revolutionary War, modernist architecture, and the sensory experience of walking in outer space. For Rose, the current moment is one of shifting terrain: as technology advances, the world changes beneath and around us, leaving us struggling to keep up. Rose is interested in the rapidly changing conditions we live in, and the ways that language, technology, and images mediate the out-of-sync realities of organic life. Originally trained as a painter, Rose now works in several media, with film being her primary outlet. Her film works are remarkable for their fusion of images and sound, her dense filmic tapestries reflecting the deep, multivalent explorations that drive her.

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Colors:

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• chemistry.n.03
• materiality.n.01
• glass.n.01
• birth.n.01
• elements.n.01
• american video artists
• american women installation artists