April 13, 2010
Exhibition: Personae
Opening reception: April 13, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.
Exhibition runs April 13th - 23, 2010
Statement:
The archaeological museum is a place for preservation, where objects of historical significance are restored, collected, and exhibited, making them available for generations to learn about the past. As such, museums like the Kelsey, especially those devoted to the earliest epochs of human history, house and display the most important examples of earliest traces and accomplishments.
In these settings amphorae, though stationary objects, have been active witnesses of various human histories. With their human-like shapes, they stand (sometimes literally) as a representational, figurative embodiment of the past at its most basic level, recalling olive orchards and vineyards, commerce, multilingualism, and now seemingly impossible sea voyages. Amphorae also stand as evidence of our efforts to preserve the past, and of our need to acquire, examine, and display as much of it as possible.
“Personae” is an exhibit by Libyan-American artist Reem Gibriel. It consists of newly made amphorae fashioned out of clay and fabric crafted to slowly disintegrate within the time period allotted to the exhibit. Shaped in a manner that recalls mummies and mummification, and given individual names, Gibriel’s amphorae will be placed among the museum’s regular collection. Viewers will have to contemplate the presence of these disintegrating amphorae among the museum’s preserved archaeological artifacts. This pause will be an opportunity to consider a host of issues related to our experience of time and our connections to our ancestors and contemporaries, where vulnerability and destruction, rather than survival, become the means of experiencing time.
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