Original artwork description:

"Salammbo, Daughter of Hamilcar" is a hybrid sculpture between a huge marionette and an installation. This work is from series "Salammbô. Le royaume perdu", based on French novelist Gistave Flaubert's historical novel "Salammbô".
Her sculpture is inspired from Flaubert's passionate description, with a tender touch of eroticism and also Virgin and Universal Mother archetypes. She is made from paper mache, found objects, crystals and beads, textil materials on wired construction, her pink Elephant of Boudoir accompanies her forever. Salammbo levitates in open space suspended in strings like a marionette. Her image has also sacral, idol-like aspects, suitable to use for home altars.
We know little about ancient Carthage - the great power of North Africa, the ruler of the Mediterranean, as well as its capital, the ruins of which can be found on the territory of modern Tunisia. The only written sources have been left to historians by its enemies: Jews, Greeks and Romans. The latter, having lived for a long time under the slogan "Carthage must be destroyed", finally did it by winning the Third Punic War in 146 BC. The city burned in flames for seventeen days, after which the victors, as they say, plowed up the ruins and soiled the ground with salt so that nothing live could grow there. Later, Carthage lives in the memories of Western Europe, gradually turning into the mysterious, legendary, rumored Eastern Land, the defeated rival, which inspires admiration, envy, and horror even after it's death.
We do not know how far we can believe the testimony of Carthage's enemies. Modern archaeologists are debating whether living people, including children, were really sacrificed to the Carthaginian gods - finds in the excavations allow different versions. We can only guess how exactly Carthage's "barbaric" luxury manifested itself and to what extent we can believe in eternal flowers and eternally singing birds.
Perhaps if we knew more, Carthage would inspire us less.
The installation consists of three parts: the head, the body and the Elephant.

Materials used:

Papier mache, fabric, textile, found objects, crystals, beads, strings

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