PRECIOUS THINGS THAT COME OUT OF THE GROUND

2017

Steel, glass, fiber stone, inkjet print, pigment on paper, graphite on paper, linoleum, brass.

Variable dimensions

Precious Things That Come Out of the Ground continues along the line of works shown in the exhibition Appeared After Rain, including a smaller model-sized work and a large-scale installation.
 
Here again, the installations are based on research into the looting and destruction of cultural heritage, and in particular photographs of a collection of looted Assyrian objects found in Mosul in January 2017 by Iraqi forces, as well as recent satellite photographs of the ancient city of Nimrud in Iraq, a site which was heavily looted and destroyed by ISIS.
 
The steel objects trace lines that are visible in satellite images of the site, and display paper objects based on the shapes of the looted artefacts. These are repeated in several elements of the installation; the fragile paper shapes and out-of-focus images of the frottages point to the ambivalent status of these objects.

The research for this project was funded by The Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the production was funded by the Danish Arts Council

Traces of Time
Leopold Museum
20.10.2017 – 26.02.2018