Kristen Ganz

VIRTUAL TOUR

ARTIST CATALOGUE

On the mourning of small lives

On the mourning of small lives My work investigates the delicate balance between beauty and loss, existence and disappearance. Using sculpture, I aim to explores unceremonious death and the subtle grief that follows. A type of loss that is minor, personal, and often ignored yet deeply experienced. Through animal forms and material, I aim to create spaces of reverence for fragile lives and to express what words often fail to capture about grief and tenderness. 

My first exhibition piece titled First Warmth/Last Light (2025), reflects on the passing of small creatures and how humans navigate these first experiences with death. The piece showcases numerous newborn rabbits molded in candle wax. The wax embodies both clarity and impermanence. it softens under touch, warps in heat, and carries connotations of prayer, ritual, and remembrance. The rabbits’ vulnerable forms speak to the inevitability of loss and the impossibility of preservation, embodying a kind of sacred fragility. Building on this, I have produced a collection of bronze molds of pet noses resting on fragile plaster cushions. The nose, an intimate and uniquely identifying feature, becomes a relic of presence. By translating it into bronze, I render permanent what is fleeting, commemorating the everyday companionship and sensory world of animals. This act of preservation transforms familiarity into monumentality; a gesture of mourning through touch. 

Another element of the collection consists of a group of small ceramic birds, each shaped by hand. These sculptures remind me of one of my first memories of death: finding a dead bird when I was young. The birds, though motionless, represent nurture through their creation. Their shared vulnerability transforms into a record of subdued respect as an acknowledgment of numerous overlooked deaths that occur without acknowledgment. 

The next element consists of black clay shapes crafted directly with my hands, baked into firm impressions of touch. Every piece is distinct, created during times of calmness, longing and purpose. Collectively, they form a sort of cairn. A heap of stones created from acts of commemoration. These shapes shift the physical experience of mourning into something tangible. In the end, my work is a gesture of compassion. With these sculptures, I aim to highlight the delicate connections between love and loss — a subtle homage to the transient lives that exist alongside and influence our own.