In the forest where my grandmother grew up, near Saarbrücken, Germany, I explored the organic forms of the woods to express the impermanence of life and the idea that we all return to where we came from. The work also served as a way for me to connect with my own roots and ancestry.

Using sand and mud, I created human forms across the forest floor. The lighter clay represents the feminine and the darker clay the masculine, arranged in a spiral-like movement that suggests the coexistence of life, birth, and death. Mushrooms, organisms that grow only in decay, were placed on the genitals of each figure, symbolizing the paradox of death within life and the generative forces of creation.

The installation was created during a storm with the intention that it would soon be destroyed and buried by nature, mirroring the cycle of life in which we ultimately return to the earth. Creating this work in the forest where my grandmother was born, and where she would later return toward the end of her life, became a deeply personal way of connecting this concept to the land.