Vaas met roggen c. 1930

This vase was made by Maurius-Ernest Sabino, but we don't know exactly when. It's a dark and shiny form, with sculptural roggen, or ray, motifs, that have a metallic luster. Looking at it, you can tell it’s been made in a mold. The process of making it is all about multiples, where the artist doesn’t work directly, but through a process. The artist's hand is concealed, almost. The roggen themselves are strange hybrid forms, almost like flowers, but with these strange, dangling, chain-like forms hanging below. These chains look like seaweed, but also like jewelry, so they’re ambiguous. That combination of marine biology and decoration is interesting. You could see this as being related to the work of someone like Ernst Haeckel, the German biologist and artist, who found symmetry and beauty in natural forms. Like this piece, Haeckel’s work showed us how art and science can embrace ambiguity, and how beauty can be found in unexpected places.