Lordvessel
Hand-cut and painstakingly assembled from layered fragments of the visceral and the mechanical, this collage births a hybrid sentinel: a bat-winged diver’s helmet crowned with a vast, unblinking blue eye, perched atop a throbbing crimson heart-cavity. Brass fittings gleam against raw flesh, tiny turtles crawl the membrane wings, insects and roots spider outward like veins of quiet rebellion. A baroque chest-plate etched with beasts and checkerboard holds the center, while dangling limbs—part organic, part relic—reach into shadow. The whole figure floats in deep maroon void, fragile yet defiant, a tender automaton confronting its maker: raw surrender stitched with luminous unease.
Process
I began by sourcing and carefully selecting vintage illustrations, anatomical fragments, mechanical details, and tiny creature motifs, then hand-cut each element with precision scissors to isolate their forms. Piece by piece, I layered and assembled them—fusing the brass diver’s helmet eye with pulsing red heart tissue, bat wings adorned with crawling turtles, and dangling insect-limbed roots—into a singular, hybrid sentinel suspended in deep crimson shadow, evoking raw confrontation with the divine.
Copyright Axenia Raulet 2026