Moving the Obelisk, 2019-2020

The sculpture's original height in my Rome studio was 18 ft. It was cut down on site to fit the ICA’s 15 ft. gallery ceiling height. Single-channel color video and sound, duration 12:03 

Adjusted to fit the ICA’s 15 ft. gallery ceiling height) and video projection.

Begun in my studio at the American Academy in Rome, and finished in the ICA's first floor gallery, Moving the Obelisk restages historical patterns. Traditionally, an obelisk is a four-sided tapered monolith, originating in Egypt. Beginning 30 BC, the Romans regularly pillaged Egyptian temples, looting obelisks in particular. Later in history, obelisks were presented as territorial gifts. Today, there are more erect obelisks outside of Egypt than within. Moving the Obelisk (somewhat ridiculously) restages this trajectory of displacement and theft. In the video my dirt and cardboard version of an obelisk (not made from one piece of stone) is dismantled, packed, shipped and reinstalled at the ICA.