Bonfire

I worked on the “Bonfire” sword during the first month of the war in Ukraine. The image that I saw two years ago in Prague – bas-relief with Archangel Michael holding a red flamberg – was just a pencil drawing, an idea for a long stretch of time. But right now, the symbolic ambiguity of the sword reflects my daily mental dithering. The sword cuts both body and soul. For the sake of defense or attack? Is it anger or mercy, violence or salvation? Will an angel hacking demons on Judgment Day remain an angel afterwards? The sword cuts time into before and now. The sword cuts memory into reality and dreams. I wanted to decorate the weapon with flowers, in order to soothe and pacify. But the flame in which the blood is boiling, where metal and anger are tempered can not yet be extinguished.