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Passio domini

Laser print on coated paper

serie of 5

170cm x 250cm 

(29,7cm x 42cm the single pictures)

2018

The photographs record the last instants of a 3 kg block of clay, that I cohabited and transported around with me everyday in my backpack for 3 months until the date of its death on which I buried it in a public park in Milan.

The aim was to humanise it, in an albeit quasi-biblical sense, without actively sculpting it with tools or hands but rather by allowing life and the passing of time to mould it.

The fingerprints mark whenever it was moved out of my bag or the interactions of the objects that where contained inside the bag with it, e.g. my wallet, water bottle, pens or groceries.

The images, the colour scheme and the shooting format is tightly linked with the traditional occidental Christian imagery of the passion of Christ, and also the title is meant to refer to such a biblical story.

 

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

(Genesis 3:19)

 

The audience, is not only offered the photographs but also encouraged to go visit the clay but also to reflect on its relation to its own “material” possessions and the idea of care. 

The 3 kg weight, is not causal but is reconnecting to the average newborn's body weight, but that is not the only analogy as the clay as an infant could not communicate yet when handled inappropriately would dry out and become non-malleable (useless for creative work, one of its mainly purposes).

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freccia.png

Amina El Khatib © 2024

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