Desert of the Real
2019
wooden table with steel legs, fluorescent lights powered by Tesla coils, sand, AR15 hand guards, counterfeit ISIS coins and other mixed media
approximately 600 cm x 300 cm x 100 cm
In the “desert of the real” installation, Using the desert as a metaphor, I recreated coins that were minted and introduced by the Islamic State in early 2015 in huge numbers to be scattered on the sand. Islamic State is one of the most interesting phenomenon and the utopian attempt of the 21st century, and it is absolutely the futurist wet dream. Desert warfare in general, including the story of a US soldier called bowe bergdahl (who abandoned his post during the war in afghanistan and who was then captured and held hostage by the Taliban), point to this idea that the desert is a place that people can escape to from the chaos of the modern world, just like the desert father and mothers of 4th century, ascetic nuns and monks who abandoned cities to live in the desert.
This work was made as part of the Ambush exhibition
