Ayn ghazal - fragments of identity

Type | Sculpture Series    Year | 2022    Project site | Rotterdam, Netherlands

Client | Self-initiated

The Ain Ghazal statues are large, lime-plaster and reed statues discovered near present-day Jordan. They are between 8500 and 9200 years old and are the earliest large-scale sculptural depictions of the human form ever discovered. Presently, digital scans of these sculptures are available on an open-source database as 3D STL files, which can be 3D printed. 

With questions of identity and meaning at the center of our biggest crises, how does the continual reproduction of simulacra of ourselves shape or distort them? Perhaps all that’s left will be the byproduct of this process as the flywheel spins out of control and shatters. Examining the Ain Ghazal sculptures prompts questions about who these ancient humans were and what they thought of themselves. They present a picture of self-referentiality, of reflection, of curiosity. Perhaps they were leaving something for us, their future selves, to discover. Ten thousand years from now, what will remain of our present cultures and worlds? Perhaps using the future as a tool to reflect on identity is more useful than attempting to design it. 

Fragments from the future involve a self-referential process of 3D printing, mould-making, casting, and scanning a scaled version of the Ain Ghazal sculpture STL file. Each iteration is then embedded with a combination of plastic and electronic scrap material, combined with other anthropogenic debris. The scan-cast process is repeated 5 times until the marginal error of digital technology, in combination with the leftovers of its physical infrastructure, distorts almost completely the original image.