DECHE

The deche vase is a response to the region of the ardeche in south west france. it is an ancient landscape with the river at its heart. steep cliffs loom above the water and in the rocks are found the caves, in whose dark interiors early homo sapiens dwelt. the mouths of these caves were hidden for thousands of years by fallen rock and undergrowth.

cave chauvet with its walls of uncanny painted beasts and the grotto of aven d’orgnac, filled with stalactites, stalagmites, hanging folds of salt deposits tinted in a meaty pink. they are enormous caverns of alien wonder where sculptures grow in thick darkness.

these caves signify a metamorphic evolution. shapes growing, twisting, slowly and silently. a transformation from liquid to crystalline building an underground cathedral of mineral, salt and rock.

it is the water that has carved out these hollow depths. the water that has permeated and burrowed creating space for immense wonders.

in the river itself, the rocks are softly shaped by the current into ribbons, bowls, scooping the solidity, moulded by a pattern of movement.