The Shape of What’s Left Behind is a series of seven tactile bronze sculptures cast directly from found organic matter. The work invites viewers to observe and touch nature’s choreographies of growth, decay, death, and renewal—offering a space to reflect on how we share room with non-human life.

Utilizing the ancient lost wax casting process, ephemeral organic moments are captured in enduring bronze. Though durable, bronze itself remains a dynamic material that corrodes, patinates, and evolves over time - eventually returning to the earth. Subverting the traditional use of bronze for rigid public monuments, this series asks: What is worth preserving? What can we learn from nature’s care and transformation?

Unlike conventional gallery experiences, visitors are actively invited to handle the artwork—to ring the resonant bronze bell, hold the cast eggs, figs, and poppy seed heads, and pour liquid over the seawitch goblet.

Featured Works & Forms

• Wasp-Pollinated Fig: A study in interspecies reliance and unseen symbiotic co-creation.

• Opium Seed Head: An exploration of rest, somnolescence, and plant medicine.

• Memory Bell: A tactile, audible vessel designed to ring and echo within the gallery space.

• Seawitch Goblet: Formed from burning oyster shells, bridging marine life, fire, and ritual gathering.

"From the visible unseen... the human condition is a condition of what the earth knows."

— Akilah Oliver (A Toast in the House of Friends)

• Artist: Gili Rappaport

• Curator: Georgina Ruff

• Exhibition: Subject:

• Exhibiting Venues:

  • Umpqua Valley Arts (Roseburg, OR)

  • Chehalem Cultural Center (Newberg, OR)

  • Pendleton Center for the Arts (Pendleton, OR)

  • Newport Visual Art Center (Newport, OR)