Tree from the series On Vain Glory and the Fleeting Taste of a Strawberry or a Wild Strawberry

Wojciech Ireneusz Sobczyk’s work refers to the left panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, which depicts the creation of Eve. Made of white, gleaming porcelain, the sculpture directly alludes to the Tree of Life, whose fruit, according to the Book of Genesis, bestowed immortality. These fruits, however, do not appear in the present work, but in another piece from this series.

The precisely crafted elements of the Tree – its branches, leaves, and trunk – form a fragile and elegant structure. Delicate roots surround the tree trunk, some of them immersed in a dark red liquid. The whole creates a composition that is at once beautiful and unsettling.