I have just installed Dawn and the Demon in the window of Heckmann Design Studio, for the exhibition Landscapes and Otherworlds, a two person show with Alex Pemberton, which will be in the gallery from November 20 2025 until January 30th 2026. The site specific window installation, over an existing wooden ring with LED lighting made by Ralf Heckmann, represents the power of light over darkness, love over hate, reason over insanity and hope over fear.
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| Dawn and the Demon 2025 installed at Heckmann Design Studio |
I started thinking mythologically about the sun in 1989 when I made a series of sculptures called Sun Woman in steel and plaster.
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| Victoria Rance Sun Woman steel 1989 160cm high photo by Peter Anderson |
I made Deptford Star, a permanent commission for Housing 21, a retirement home on Edward Street SE8, in 2002.
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| Deptford Star 2002 powder coated steel 155x145x30cm |
In 2018 I turned to the Sun again with 'Myth', a short animation in which the sun taking the form of a baby, is found in the morning, dies in the evening and is grieved for by The People of the Sun every day.
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| still from Myth, People of the Sun 2018 with Esther Bunting |
My query over the last year was whether the Sun was a male or female deity across the globe. And when it started to be forgotten as a supreme power, and whether we need to truly respect it again in order to survive. I found its gender varied and even changed within the same cultures, starting female and becoming male and sometimes being both. But I became most convinced by those who placed it beyond gender: as the first deity, before sex, before gender, the beginning.
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| Priestess of the Sun II 2025 in Open Studio at APT |
Currently there are two short films in production with Cole Pemberton which we made in 2025 after I started to create wearable sculptures of the Sun itself, and of its priestesses or worshippers.
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| Still from film with Cole Pemberton 2025 |
One of these sculptures was shown at Cable Depot Sofia, Bulgaria, near where Thracians worshipped the Sun as the son of the Mother Goddess.
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| poster for Priestess of the Sun, Cable Depot Sofia 2025 |
I have also made three pairs of shoes and a hat for sun worship. These Shoes for Mangoes are currently on The Copeland Gallery as part of The London Group Open which is open daily and runs until November 23rd.
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| Shoes for Mangoes installed at Copeland Gallery |
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| Victoria Rance Hat for Sun Worship 2025 |
