Heritage Studies #7
Heritage Studies #7 is part of an ongoing series by the Egyptian American artist Iman Issa that imaginatively recasts ancient Egyptian and Islamic artifacts and architectural remnants as geometrically abstract, minimal sculptures. This elegant wooden form and its slender metal tripod are accompanied by a vinyl wall text that describes a quartzite "Statue of King Ahmose; Unifier of the land who established the country’s national borders, which it retains to this day." The discrepancy between that text’s apocryphal historical reference and the sculpture’s emphatically modern minimalist form—what we might call its speculative temporality—provokes productive questions about the manipulability, stakes, and stewardship of ancient history.
Artwork Details
- Title: Heritage Studies #7
- Artist: Iman Issa (Egyptian, born Cairo 1979)
- Date: 2015
- Medium: Mahogany, painted metal, and vinyl text
- Edition: AP 2/3 + 2 AP
- Dimensions: 72 × 42 7/16 × 17 1/2 in., 18 lb. (182.9 × 107.8 × 44.5 cm, 8.2 kg)
- Classifications: Sculpture, Installations
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Ford Foundation Gift, 2024
- Object Number: 2024.422a–c
- Rights and Reproduction: Iman Issa
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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