The Swarm of Possible Meanings
Surrounding the Ancient Pyramids
This
particular body of work casts its eye on the Western fascination with the
mysteries of Egypt. From the Age of Enlightenment to the present day, the West
has sought after the unknowable, the esoteric and the sacred aspects of Egypt.
Artifacts, cryptic motifs and geometry are hallmarks of what we understand to
be Egyptian. Pictorial flatness, immediacy of imagery, and symbology are visual
cues we recognize as seminal Egyptian developments. Western archeologists and
sundry men of adventure have sought to understand the modern world, vis-a-vis
the ancient, through rummaging about the Nile valley.
Wearing
bowties and fedora hats, or traditional Egyptian garments, European explorers
and scientists saw the Valley of the Kings as their personal responsibility to
protect and explore. Measurements were drawn, alignments to the stars were
made, bodies exhumed, treasures and canopic devices were categorized,
inspected, sold or stored. Egyptologists are an interesting study, as they are
traditionally men who desire esoteric knowledge through science and research.
They aim to discover what they believe is lost, to illuminate the ancient civilization
that left behind as many more questions than answers.
Egypt has
been endlessly fascinating to the West. It is plausible that Egypt is still a
most fascinating subject, because very little is known about it. This body of
work reflects the impossibility and futility of understanding the mysteries of
ancient Egypt, but the drive to do so is implicit. The work has been informed
through research into the exploits of European Egyptologists and other
westerners who have written about or visited Egypt. Occultists, soldiers of
fortune, grave robbers, poets and painters all have strived to describe Egypt.
This project hopes to describe them and their desire as well as draw
connections between the esoteric that is sought after and the political/social
reality of the colonial pursuit of archeology.
ten years digging in egypt, an
egyptologist sketchbook
image to image
comparisons, a study of egyptomania
INSTALLATION SHOTS FROM
SOLO EXHIBITION AT FREIGHT + VOLUME, SEPT 2007