Unearthed Origins: Ralph Paquin’s Sculpture In-Progress “Artifact”

Ralph Paquin is currently developing a new sculpture for his ongoing Ethereal Origins series titled “Artifact.” This evolving piece—captured here in its early stages—represents the artist’s fascination with discovery, time, and the hidden continuity between organic and outerworldly forms.

Still in progress, Artifact begins as a raw armature wrapped in flowing, interlaced lines, suggesting both containment and emergence. Its form feels simultaneously ancient and futuristic—an object that might have been uncovered from deep beneath the Earth’s crust, yet clearly not of terrestrial origin. The sculpture evokes a sense of mystery, as if it harbors universal wisdoms waiting to be deciphered.

As with much of Paquin’s work, Artifact blurs the line between biological and cosmic, material and metaphysical. Each adjustment to the form, curve, and rhythm of the armature becomes part of an intuitive process—a search for the sculpture’s natural “flow” that will reveal its true presence over time.

Through Ethereal Origins, Paquin continues to explore questions of creation and consciousness: What remnants of other worlds might exist among us? How do we interpret what cannot yet be understood? The developing Artifact is a vessel for those ideas—an imagined relic from elsewhere, embodying the very tension between origin and evolution.