The Skull Project
Artist Statement
I have worked on eggshells since I was a child, learning the traditional Ukrainian art of pysanky from my mother. This is the same Eastern Slavic tradition that produced the exquisite work of Fabrege, who was creating jeweled eggs and objets d’art for the Russian aristocracy.
This artistic and cultic use of eggs informs my work to this day—as I believe that eggs are events—not simply objects. The shells (while the protective casing for the new life inside) are memories of the primal events that produced the eggs, intended as new life.
In order to infuse new life into this art form, I have manipulated traditional processes with innovative dyeing and brush techniques, and etching, to forge a new visual language to write on this versatile, organic sphere. Each egg is a spherical space, a continuously turning pictorial plane around which images distort, challenging common perceptions.
I also create mosaics from broken eggshells; destroying the intensely controlled process of carefully scripted design on the shell and turning studio detritus into stories. Through using broken shells and adhering them to a flat surface plane, I have reconfigured my preconceived worldview by playing in an unknown field of shattered illusions.
As a three-dimensional phenomenon, eggshells offer unique possibilities for sculpture. Each type of eggshells affords me unique opportunities for expression due to the variations of texture, color and size. I endeavor to combine these properties to create a new art, a synthesis of ancient design toward a new worldview.
—Paul Wirhun
