Numerous creation myths tell of the separation of heaven and earth.

Whether in ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, Africa, South America, from Alaska to the Far East, from Sudan to Latvia—whether they are called Abassi and Atai or Rangi and Papa… these are always myths of separation: moving, perplexing, humorous, or even merciless stories.

Long, long ago, nothing separated heaven and earth. Heaven and earth were an embracing couple, like Nut, the goddess of the sky, and Geb, the god of the earth, in Egypt. Like Gaia, the goddess of the earth, and Uranus, the god of the sky, in Greece, from whose union Cronus emerged. One might think this was the fruit of perfection—had the son not later castrated his father with a sickle. A cut. Yet the Golden Age emerges—a peaceful world and happy people: the goal of all desire. Perhaps this is one reason why Kronos was later equated with Chronos, the winged god of time. Longing is reflected in harmony and strives for permanence.

Of course, there are also stories that speak of the possibility of a connection in the form of a ladder to heaven, a rope, or a staircase, thereby depicting a paradisiacal state. Separated and yet connected. Separation creates space and time, but also polarity: up and down, man and woman, heaven and earth, life and death. Separation creates distance, movement rather than stagnation, and life that in turn strives for union.

The world as a place of complementary duality, in which the dissolution of opposites signifies a return to chaos—not order, but once again the primordial soup from which everything arose.

Installation with 25 heads of stoneware, mirrored and backlit. The color temperature of the light adapts from morning to night to daylight.