Unknown Echo, 2023
Fine silver .999, 24k gold gilding, garnet, display base
7.5 x 4.5 x 9.75" - rhyton
12.5 x 6.5 x 14.5” - with display base
Unknown Echo is the second rhyton I created, inspired by Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Departing from traditional forms, it features two distinct sculptural elements and omits the classic horn-shaped beaker, emphasizing sculptural storytelling over functional convention.
Woman & Water Buffalo, 500–700
Sasanian, Iran, 600s or Turk Shahi dynasty, Kabul, Afghanistan, 500s
On view at The Cleveland Museum of Art, 102A Ancient Near East
Before beginning this piece, I revisited the Sea Monster Stirrup Cups, seeking a way to bridge my space-influenced work with the world of sea monsters. In place of the woman’s head, I sculpted a SpaceX-inspired helmet, a unique space suit design with a clearly separated neck. The lower “monster” section of the rhyton required careful exploration: Sea Monster Stirrup Cup 007 served as a prototype to test how far material could be extended when forming tentacles. This experiment made SM007 a distinctive stirrup cup and helped me to understand a new sculptural direction.
The overall “monster” design is reminiscent of Cthulhu, the cosmic entity created by H.P. Lovecraft in The Call of Cthulhu (1928). Cthulhu, a modern mythological creature, continues to be redefined and Unknown Echo merges an ancient ritual object with modern mythology.
Helmet and monster, human and mythic, technology and nature, Unknown Echo embodies the tension between control and chaos, the known and the unknowable. This piece explores these dualities, inviting the viewer to consider how myth, imagination, and human endeavor converge. In doing so, it shows how contemporary forms can reimagine the ancient symbolic roles once held by ritual vessels, turning historical echoes into something newly resonant.
