Yana Sokalski

The ceramic sculpture "Transfer" draws upon the European funerary tradition, which itself absorbed both ancient and medieval influences. The sarcophagus form is used here not merely as a receptacle for remains, but as a symbolic object—a bridge between the world of the living and the dead.

At the heart of the work is a double sarcophagus featuring heroes from the Garold universe. In ancient and early medieval art, married couples were often depicted reclining together at a banquet, symbolizing a union that endures beyond death. The famous Etruscan sarcophagi have preserved this gesture—husband and wife sharing a meal together in the afterlife. This tradition found new meaning in early Christian monuments, where the emphasis shifted from mourning death to promising resurrection.

A key element of he sculpture is the male figure, portrayed with pronounced vitality. Images on sarcophagi were meant to ensure the deceased's transition to a new life, and here the physicality becomes a symbol of life force defying death. It represents the triumph of love and devotion—bonds that do not fade even beyond the threshold of existence. In this way, ancient tradition, reinterpreted through the medieval promise of resurrection, meets the artist's personal mythology, transforming the tomb into a story about eternal connection.