In this work, it was important for me to preserve the distinctive features of the Akhal-Teke horse as the carrier of the image of living metal. The breed’s elongated silhouette, long neck, refined head, and metallic visual presence make it a natural embodiment of this idea: a living body that seems shaped not only by anatomy, but also by light, reflection, and tension.

The main challenge was to find a balance between stylization and realism. I wanted the horse to remain recognizably Akhal-Teke, while allowing the image to move beyond a realistic depiction of the animal. The form had to begin shifting, reflecting, splitting, and entering another material state.

Unlike Gold, where the secondary forms are more dissolved and clearly subordinated to the main image, Mercury required more visible and saturated echoes. This created a different challenge: the echo-forms had to be strong enough to suggest phase movement and reflection, but not so dominant that they would compete with the central figure.

I tried to build the sense of fluidity not only through the horse itself, but also through the surrounding space. The background is not a passive setting; it supports and extends the movement of the body. The main figure follows an S-shaped rhythm, while the echo-heads and surrounding arcs introduce a circular movement around it. These two directions work together, creating the impression of a form that is constantly gathering, shifting, and dissolving again.

Another important part of the process was the contrast between rounded, flowing lines and sharper geometric planes. The circular movement gives the work its fluidity, while the angular structures create tension and fragmentation. This keeps the image from becoming soft or formless. The horse remains structured and internally held, even as its image begins to split and transform.

The central idea was to bring the image closer to the state of mercury itself. Mercury is fluid, unstable, reflective, and difficult to contain. It can gather into a drop, but in its liquid state it resists fixed form. This was the state I wanted to capture: an image that seems to melt and escape, while still being able to gather itself into a coherent body.

For me, Mercury is not simply an image of movement. It is an attempt to show the moment between formation and dissolution — between body, reflection, and trace.