This little stag beetle shrine symbolises voluptuousness and death: you find stag beetles only in mature and flourishing oak forests, yet they feed off and nest in the dying trees; they hatch early summer to mate, yet they die shortly after they’ve reproduced.

The purpose of this shrine is to reintroduce a symbolic layer to nature, which has vanished from our techno-scientific societies. Though science expands our understanding of the world around us, it can also undermine our more emotional and experiential attachment to it.

To me, these beautiful prehistoric-looking inspects, which are increasingly threatened by habitat loss, exemplify the two opposing faces of nature: reproduction and death.

This object was inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund. The novel explores man's duality through two contrasting characters: Narcissus, a man of reason and intellect, and Goldmund, a man absorbed by emotions and earthly pursuits. This shrine is an invitation to follow Goldmun's footsteps and retrieve our more spiritual and emotional attachment to nature.

The shrine is carved out of chestnut wood. I found the dead stag beetle in the woods, next to an old oak tree that has been suffering from an infestive disease. It eventually died this year.

2022