The Shell

The installation was created on the shore of the beach where the artist grew up, in a place connected to memory, childhood, and return.

She moulds a shell as a symbol of home. It appears soft, pale, protective, almost maternal. A place to hide, rest, and be held.

But a shell is also a border. What protects can also enclose. What feels nurturing can become too close, too fixed, too heavy to leave. The same form that offers safety may also limit movement, keeping the body folded inward.

The work reflects on the tension between comfort and confinement, belonging and escape. It asks whether home is a place of protection, or a shape we eventually have to break open in order to grow.

The artist uses building materials to imitate the translucent and shiny quality of seashells, connecting the artwork to the sea and to the beach where she grew up. The fragile, fabric like surface contrasts with the rigid structure beneath it, creating an object that feels both delicate and resistant. It stands as a temporary shelter, a memory, and a body caught between softness and survival.

installation
reused construction materials
170 x 60 x 80 cm

2023

Asja Baii visual artist The Shell Memories of SeaPreserving Soft Topographies Urban Skin, Human Form Postfloral About

Asja Baii
visual artist

The Shell
Memories of Sea
Preserving

Soft Topographies
Urban Skin, Human Form
Postfloral

About