helena kaori maeda

“Gaia”

Stone and metal + acrylic on board

Variable dimensions

2025

“Gaia” is the ancestral mother and personification of the Earth in Greek mythology. The sculpture invokes her as a symbol of both feminist thought and ecological consciousness, bringing together questions of care, origin, and interdependence.

The mother of life embraces her egg, an elemental symbol of life’s potential and fragility. This gesture of holding becomes an act of protection and reverence, evoking the body as a site of creation, continuity, and nurturing. The embrace also suggests vigilance: a quiet resistance against forces that threaten life and balance.

Through this intimate yet archetypal image, the work reflects on the entanglement of human and planetary existence, foregrounding care as a radical and sustaining life force.