Relli De Vries investigates the inaccuracies of weight and measurement, taken for granted in their certitude, despite the never-ending fluidity of technological refinement and the temporality of knowledge. Reflecting her interest in both the fundamental and manmade forces that shape our world, De Vries works with materials found in nature, together with physical tools.

Her creation of ‘apparatus devices’ express the mysteries of what is impossible to quantify solely through logic, often in a poetic and philosophical manner. The pomegranate is a complex fruit that represents wisdom and knowledge. For Devries, the pomegranate’s many seeds forming one fruit is an analogy to the many different peoples dwelling together in the land of Israel, as is granite, formed through the compression of many types of rock to form a solid mass.

In Pomegranate, 2023, De Vries has made a metaphysical scale, comprised of two carved pink granite pomegranates affixed to a bronze ruler and compass, with tendrils of hanging bronze ‘jewelry’. Granite rock footsteps are connected together by a delicate trailing chain. The weight of those sunken steps, is a pilgrimage that is impossible to walk with an unreachable destination. Through a further ceremony of sound, De Vries performs an etymological summoning, calling forth the pomegranate in pronunciations from languages that borrow and share sounds through linguistic transmission, reflecting a multiplicity of voices in their oneness.

Exhibition Curator: Savannah Gorton