Description:
A sculpture in three parts, comprised of circular metal bands of different circumferences connected by thin strands of silver chain. Each individual piece loosely echoes the shapes of rockets and missiles, and is intended to be hung vertically from the ceiling.
Label Text:
Afruz Amighi, an emerging artist born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in the United States, creates installations and sculptures with powerful themes that belie their fine craftsmanship and decorative appearance.
In Last Sky , part of the series Rocket Gods, humble metals are transformed into precious and delicate caged sculptures based on the forms of rockets and ground-to-air missiles. The work captures what Amighi calls a “combination of decadence and deadliness.” Bathed in tranquil light, they become chandelier-like idols of weaponry, meant to be coveted, worshipped and feared. The sculpture serves as a haunting reminder of the American economy’s reliance on the profits of war.
In 2009, Amighi was awarded the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Jameel Prize, an international award recognizing contemporary works inspired by Islamic art and design traditions. Deeply personal as well as political, her work destabilizes preconceptions of a purely decorative Islamic art tradition, and subtly provokes us to consider pressing contemporary issues of power and conflict.
2014
The forms of these sculptures are based on images of U.S. rockets and ground-to-air missiles. They are rendered in silver chain, reminiscent of chandeliers. This combination of decadence and deadliness is a meditation on the machinations of the highly profitable U.S. military industrial complex.
-Afruz Amighi (April 2013)
Tags:
wars; politics; sculpture; circles Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2013.6a-c |
