Salamandre
A vertical landscape in relief on a large salvaged wood panel, close to a metre thirty tall: cliffs, a waterfall running to a pool, a tightrope walker crossing under his parasol between two pillars, and a green salamander flecked with yellow climbing the bank, the only declared inhabitant. Stone, bark, branches and paint push up to six centimetres off the panel; the scene reads from still water up to the light. Six stone-edged containers are built into the structure: the work is sold without plants, leaving the owner to install and renew their own. Bare, it holds as a relief painting; planted, it becomes a botanical display.
The bestiaries granted the salamander the power to live in flames. Here it stands guardian of the green and the damp, set beside a pool, waiting for living plants: the fire animal turned to its opposite, and the work leaves it to the living to complete it.