She whirls
chaos and confusion
at those who disobey
her, hurrying havoc, hastening the flood,
dressed in a dreadful
gleam. Her joy is to
speed up conflict
and combat: ever
restless, she straps
on her sandals. She
splits the blazing,
furious storm, the
whirlwind billows
around her as if
it were a dress.
Her touches bring
despair. Her
venom strikes like the storm.*
*From The Hymn to Inana by Enheduana, High Priestess, Ur, Mesopotamia,
2300 BC translated by Sophus Helle 2023
"We are totally dependent on the sun, So much so, we cannot bear it.
We struggle to hold its power in our minds at the same time as our human consciousness, the awareness of self. We cannot look at the sun fully without it blinding us. This is both literally and metaphorically true. If there is a god, the sun is it. As with Medusa, an old solar goddess, we can only face her reflection. But we turn away at our peril, she gains power daily. She made us. She will destroy us.
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| Priestess of the Sun, Cable Depot Sofia 2025 |
"Like an ancient priestess, I call for natural forces, fires, floods, unbearable heat, to wake up mankind to the threat they face. The warming planet and ever increasing loss of plants and fellow creatures is caused by humans. I want us to remember that we too are primates. We need this earth! How have we forgotten the source of life?
"The daily need for survival by the poorest and the greedy pursuit for more money by the richest distracts utterly. The rise of right wing populism telling people “there’s nothing to worry about”, “we didn’t make this mess”, “warming is a natural phenomenon” and “we should continue digging for oil”, is a comfort for the childlike who can’t face their responsibility and the truth.
"We must turn our faces upwards, lift our arms, find humility and worship, to understand the new reality we face." *
* Victoria Rance text for Priestess of the Sun Cable Depot Sofia July 2025
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Rituals of Light installation with Vladmir Combre de Sena, Eulengasse, Frankfurt 2026 |
"Victoria Rance's works evoke collective beliefs, forgotten histories and speculative futures while addressing questions that feel increasingly urgent in the present. The sun, animals, plants and ritual actions emerge not as nostalgic references to distant cultures, but as living symbols through which ideas of power, care, transformation and interconnectedness can be reimagined." *
*Vladmir Combre de Sena, "Rituals of Light... Landscapes of Time" exhibition text 2026
Shoes for Mangoes (shown at Copeland Gallery London 2025, Eulengasse Frankfurt 2026, Pocket Marseilles France 2026) were made just before a solar eclipse on March 29th 2025 and after I found a written record of a dream from 07/07/2004 in which I wore slippers made of mangoes and rode a bike fast down a steep hill after meeting a guru and making a fire.
In the dream the guru said “Victoria has a genius for fires”.
The dream and the shoes have led to many more works about the power of the sun, and of golden yellow. I propose that we urgently need to worship the sun and fear and respect its true power over our lives before it’s too late.
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| Shoes for Mangoes 2025 |
Wall hangings, robes, hats and shoes for sun priestesses followed, and depictions of the darkness too as a counterpoint to the Sun.
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| Dance with the Sun (Sundays) 2025-6 |
Dawn and the Demon was in the window of Heckmann Design Studio, for the exhibition Landscapes and Otherworlds November to January 2026. The site specific window installation 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 |
Three short films in collaboration with Cole Pemberton were made in 2025-6 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 |
My queries over the last year included 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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| Cloak for a Sun Priestess 2026 |
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| Cloak for a Sun Priestess 2026 |
Previously:
1989 Sun Woman series in steel and plaster.
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| Victoria Rance Sun Woman steel 1989 160cm high photo by Peter Anderson |
'Myth' 2018 is 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. The costumes were knitted by Deptford Creek and the Thames, following their colours and incorporating their plants.
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| Still from Myth, People of the Sun 2018 with Esther Bunting |
all images copyright Victoria Rance 2026
