snowman – "rajul al-thalj"
260 x 520 cm
burnt clay bricks, cement mortar, reinforcing irons, emulsion paint
december 2017
karmakol cultural festival, sudan
the "rajul al-thalj" (snowman) is made of sun-dried mud bricks and finished with white plaster. it is an attempt to reverse the very characteristics of a popular representation in terms of aesthetics, materiality and performance. the monumental recreation of an abstracted snowman in a saharan context performs no ritualistic or ceremonial function. it rather pays reverence to the birth of anthropomorphic figuration and the cultural environments where human ideotypes begin to appear.
