Through the Goddess sculptures, Lampert explores weaving as a metaphor for the cosmos, the daily cycle of the sun, moon and stars as a divine shuttle passing through the warp and weft of a loom.
Weaving, seen as a mundane activity is often overlooked in the grand narrative of human progress. However, re-examination of this occupation can position it as playing a central rolehe history of technology, commerce and civilisation. An example can be seen in the archaeological evidence the palace Knossos.
One reason textiles have been overlooked in the historical record is that materials such as stone, pottery, and architecture visibly endure, whereas woven materials leave a more unassuming footprint.
Another reason may be linked to who was in charge of the technology. In ancient Greece and Rome, for example, fabric production was a primary form of labour expected of women. Weaving myths serve as records of female activity, intelligence, and socio-political power. Weaving myths serve as records of female activity, intelligence, and socio-political power.
The Butterfly series expands on Lampert's 2021 sculpture, Carapace. A representation of the naturalist and illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian and her daughter Dorothea Graff. In 1699, Merian and her daughter travelled from Amsterdam to Dutch Suriname to study insects in their natural environment. During their time in Suriname, they meticulously catalogued and raised hundreds of known and previously unknown life cycles. This work highlights their largely overlooked achievements in entomology and scientific illustration.
In Lamperts latest series of work, titled ‘Trinkets for the end of the world’, she explores the human pursuit of extreme wealth and the destructive lengths to which it can extend. Based on her research on Maria Sibylla Merian’s journey in 1699, which she sees as “the end of one world and the beginning of another”, she frames colonisation not only as a political transformation but an ecological and social rupture. Believing that the project of colonial extraction has paved the way to evolve into hyper-capitalism. This model facilitates the pursuit of unrestrained economic growth which continues to sacrifice ecosystems, waterways, and the atmosphere while destroying relationships between communities and nature.
Lampert presents a gilded form, For the love of Gold, which meditates on society’s obsession with gold as the material embodiment of wealth. Its title comes from the expression, For the Love of God, a phrase used to express extreme frustration, impatience, or a desperate plea. By invoking an expression used when a person has run out of patience, the work suggests that we consider the limits of wealth and the fact that money cannot buy life.