Lucas Pointon | Effigy Ring

Artist: Lucas Pointon, WisconsinMaterials: bronze, brass, sterling silver, freshwater pearl, cubic zirconia, paintSize: 8 Artist Statement: My new series of works is inspired by Medieval reliquaries, containers that traditionally held the relic of a saint. I am interested in the ways that we venerate the dead and living. Within my work, the cast silver American cockroach serves as a modern surrogate for a relic. We are living in a time of cheap manufactured goods and a love for new things that quickly become trash, and in our hypocrisy, we destroy the environment and label creatures such as cockroaches as dirty and detestable. In fact, they are considered the garbage collectors of terrestrial ecosystems and participate in the recycling of human waste. My reliquary jewelry illuminates these once living detritivores and, I hope, directs the viewers’ moral compass in waste management and environmental protection. My art jewelry is, in essence, venerating the breakdown of the natural recyc