Liberation
Ciprian Ariciu
- Dimensions
- approx. 45 × 25 × 40 cm
- Firing
- Raku firing, 980 °C
- Materials
- Stoneware
- Year
- 2017
Available
We need to lose ourselves, to deconstruct, to analyse, to rearrange the “position of the bricks” in order to give ourselves the chance TO BE. Lost in the sea of sensations and colours from which we are made, it is only after having been through the storm that we can discover who we are. We can understand and appreciate the inner parts that have travelled across generations to reach us: our strongest ancestral elements. We begin to embrace what we have received, what we have built, and what we have instinctively chosen for ourselves. We recreate ourselves, discover ourselves, and free ourselves all at once, becoming everything we are capable of being.
Through this accumulation of energy and a newly understood sense of life, we learn that we can give without becoming any less ourselves. Something of what we offer returns to us; there, at the very foundation of who we are, it merges with the beginning, with matter itself, and fills us with vitality.
The artwork Liberation is divided into segments and planes. The platform at the base, with its raised edges, symbolises waiting and the preparation for our arrival. The lower part of the cylinder represents the way we are shaped as individuals through learning and assimilation – a rigid framework from which we do not know or understand that we can break free, and which does not define us entirely.
The band at the bottom, with its slightly rough black-and-white texture, evokes ancestral genetic information and what we inherit as resources and lessons, giving us the strength to grow, develop, and find stability.
The blue windows set against a white background symbolise life, joy, and the positive aspects we discover within ourselves.
At the top, the cylinder's clear, clean form begins to transform, becoming more open while retaining strong accents and details. The black-and-white contrast emerges, expressing intense emotions, rebellion, the search for self, and ultimately, liberation.
As a result of this process, we learn to contain ourselves – an idea symbolised by the bowl positioned at the top.