Pareidolia (Home) is an ongoing series in which I reconstruct found eggshells on paper. For years, I have been collecting eggshells on walks like an unmiraculous treasure hunt, fragments of something once whole, a first home for a little bird that is broken on exit into the world. It’s what we do with memories of home; whilst these remembrances are constantly being recontextualised, we try to keep piecing them together in order to hold onto a feeling of sense and safety.

This work isn’t about making the egg look like an egg again. Temporally that would be impossible, in the same way we cannot return to childhood. Instead, it’s about creating something new through seeking order within the broken pieces. It’s in this search for cohesion that gradually these compositions take form. I think of them as drawings, but also as a reflection on our human need to find meaning. It’s the same impulse that makes us see shapes in clouds, patterns in randomness; a quiet and ancient attempt to make sense of things.

Documentation: Alicja Kielan courtesy of Galerie Op Enheim