The Little Art Window: RACHEL MARKS "OUROBOROS"

Rachel Marks

ΟὐΡΟΒΌΡΟΣ(OUROBOROS), 2025

recycled books, apple seed, tree bark, snake skeleton, LED lights, fossils, geodes, precious stones, insects, amber, scorpion, crab, dirt, tree mushroom, salt, crystallised cicada, branch
270 x 140 cm.

PROVENANCE: from the Artist’s studio

Ouroboros, a new site-specific sculpture created for The Little Art Window, traces a symbolic cycle of creation, decay, and renewal — a work that unfolds like a quiet mythology in miniature.

From the Greek οὐροβόρος, ‘the serpent that devours its own tail’, Rachel Marks’ Ouroboros reflects the cycle of creation, death, and rebirth. An apple seed beside a snake skeleton evokes the Genesis serpent, the Ouroboros, and life’s origins. From this core, root-like tendrils, skins, and mineral forms emerge, recalling metamorphosis and ancient earth deities.

Geodes, fossils, salt, and precious stones suggest Earth’s slow alchemy, where pressure and time transform matter. Malachite, beetles, and fungi mark decay turning toward renewal. A mineralised cicada, an insect that rises after seventeen years underground, becomes a symbol of resurrection, from which crystallised book pages unfurl like leaves: language returning to nature.

Read left to right, the work grows like a tree from seed to canopy, forming a continuum where geology, myth, and spirit unfold in perpetual becoming.

Rachel Marks, an American-born, Paris-based multidisciplinary artist, explores the intersections of nature, language, ritual, and transformation. Recent projects include Palímpsēstos Florae at Christie’s Paris (2025) and Planáō Germinatio at the Forum de Meyrin, Switzerland (2025–2026).