Intermediaries #5 • 2026
Coffee maker dimensions: 11 x 17 x 21 cm
Sugar bowl dimensions: 10 x 10 x 12 cm
Cup and saucer dimensions: 10 x 10 x 6.5 cm
Goatskin parchment, tinted goatskin parchment, ebony, 24 carat gold leaf, 925 silver leaf, cooper leaf, 14k rolled gold nails
The Intermediaries sculpture series was born from research around the "terpnopoietic" ornament (which provides pleasure). This reflection is based on the work of art historian Oleg Grabar and more particularly on his theory of ornament as an intermediary between the viewer and the work of art. He explains that "ornament is defined by the feeling of pleasure that one feels when looking at it. It is no longer a thing, but an emotion, a passion, an idea, which affects everything that is created by artists and craftsmen. It is a property of the work of art that transforms the viewer."
Stemming from a variety of objects, a cup, a saucer and sugar cubes, I explore, through the use of ornamentation, this transformation of the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the object to the work of art. The ornamental, taken to its paroxysm, frees its emotional potential and questions the onlooker with regard to his relation to the object.
This coffee set is entirely handmade from carved, layered sheets of goatskin parchment and ebony wood.
Playing with the conventions of Baroque ornamentation, Intermediaries #5 revisits the centuries-old craft of parchment carving pioneered by master luthiers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Drawing inspiration from the parchment rosettes that adorn the soundholes—circular openings in the soundboards—of early musical instruments such as the harpsichord, Baroque guitar, and lute, Intermediaries #5 appropriates this historic ornamental style to elevate objects rooted in pop culture.
Intermediaries #5 is also conceived as a tribute to the work of Northern European sculptor-miniaturists from the late 15th century. These artists mastered the art of creating miniature objects for personal devotion, featuring intricate, lavish ornamentation carved from boxwood. Much like their miniature altars, which harbor a multitude of hidden and retractable elements, my coffee pot contains rosettes concealed within. The spherical sugar bowl, for its part, represents a secular reinterpretation of "prayer nuts."
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