Cochlea
Snail
This piece holds many meanings. It is the culmination of years of thinking about my favorite subjects. Many of the creatures in the Bestiaries were a mash up of different animals, human imagination, and moral belief. They often say more about our human vulnerabilities than the animals they were meant to illustrate. The figure 8 is associated with infinity, which relates to the snail as symbol of resurrection and the human soul. This symbol also adorns the base for the automaton via ornamental turning. The automaton and the ornamental lathe both held high purpose in institutions of learning. In this way, both automata and ornamentally turned objects were used as tools for deciphering and pondering our universe. God was seen as a perfect turner, as the world was seen as a perfect sphere turned on the lathe. God was seen as the perfect mechanic, as the universe was seen as a perfect machine. God was seen as the perfect Geometer, as the snail’s shell is the golden mean incarnate. The automaton snail marries these philosophical ideas about the nature of God. By choosing to pair the snail with the rabbit, I want to represent the human condition. The snail is a complex creature that has held mankind’s interest for hundreds of years. Its house grows with it and in perfect symmetry with its body. It can heal its shell to a certain extent, but its duality is that it’s also slimy and retreats at the sign of danger. The rabbit is also a sacred symbol used for Easter and represents the resurrection, but at the same time is seen as lustful and filthy because the rabbit quickly reproduces. The dichotomies of these two creatures, both in their symbolic meaning, and in their natural behaviors, one being slow and the other fast, represent the duality of mankind. In short Cochlea, (Snail) is a marriage of nature and the machine, the cam and the rose engine, and the duality of human nature.
