Elisabeth Varga is a sculptor who lives and works in Amsterdam. From 1978 to 1984 she studied sculpture at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, and in 1986 she made her first medal. Since then she has received many commissions for portraits, and she has exhibited her medals since 1987. As a free-lance sculptor, her principal subjects are dance and dancers, and she travels widely to attend performances. Her many activities have included teaching at the Kallós Zóltan Foundation, Válaszút, Romania, and lecturing at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. The artist writes about her BAMS medal: ‘I was fascinated by this animal – the bulging body with its intense green colour and intelligent eye. There seems to be a contradiction in its form: the seemingly weak body produces strong ribbon-like arms, held together by skin that spreads out over the medal almost without relief. You imagine they will cover its victim like a tent. The animal is still, looking at you from the centre – almost. The reverse represents the unexpected. The arms come from the other side – not the lobial side – into the circle. They are long and loose, curled up to pull you away. This side expresses displacement. ‘Just as I finished the medal, a giant octopus turned up on the coast of Tasmania – the very first to be found almost complete. Weighing two hundred and fifty kilos, its arms were fifteen to eighteen metres long. For me it represents the question: what is your relationship with the subconscious and all those questions that lie hiden inside you?’