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ANACLE
right: ANACLE, 2020-24
steel, glass, computer, stepper motors, PHB powder, PHB bacteria, water, pumps, 350 x 130 x 130 cm

left: 3D-printed hand from the sculpture Black sun speaks / the oil of the night bleeds / from the hollows of the deeps, 2023 (detail)
PHB, steel, 190 × 110 × 60 cm

The PHB powder obtained in REFINERY is melted and extruded in the sculpture ANACLE. Using 3D printing technology, stalagmite-like sculptures grow within a glass bioreactor filled with liquid bacterial culture. Acting as sculptors, the bacteria metabolise the material, shape its form, and act simultaneously as “quarry” and “chisel”.

While Pythia, the oracle priestess of Delphi, once sat upon a tripod, in ANACLE this is inverted into a three-legged delta robot. In a twist on the ancient oracle, ANACLE speaks not orally, but anally.