SEVEN INCANTATIONS, PRAYERS AND RITUAL SONGS FROM THE POETRY OF SUMERIA AND BABYLONIA
Short description:
An unusual experiment that brings together three art forms: sculpture, ceramics and printing. The book with pages made from Jelgava clay presents brilliant translations from the “dead” Sumerian and Akkadian languages and sculptural reliefs full of symbolic meaning. In 2001, this publication was shown in an individual exhibition in the State Hermitage museum.
Artists:
Edition:
7 copies numbered and signed by the publisher and the artist. Copy № 3 is in the collection of the State Hermitage.
Additional information
Details of the creation of this masterpiece
-
Year of publication:2000
-
Number of pages:7 sculptures
Language:
Russian
Materials: Jelgava clay, metal oxides and salts.
The publication uses translations by Vladimir Shileiko, Igor Dyakonov, Veronika Afanasyeva and Igor Klochkov that vividly and ably convey to modern-day readers the lofty poetry of this very ancient literature.
The skill of the artist and the beauty of the translations succeeded in bridging the span of six millennia. The sacral group of sculptures is an experiment by a modern-day artist in creating a sort of reminiscence of written artefacts, the search for a form consonant with the original sources. Six thousand years later, an artist combines word and clay, produces a contemporary “rhyme” for the plasticity of cuneiform tablets. To do so, he uses a direct impression of the set type of the Russian text, stressing in that way not only Gutenberg’s invention, but also the contrast between the concreteness of the impression and the sensual plastic nature of the sculpture. From the extensive literature of ancient Mesopotamia, a selection was made of poetic texts that do not divide, but rather connect the 3rd millennium BC and the 3rd millennium AD. Such eternal themes as mourning and love, birth and motherhood, sin and prayer speak to us now as they did to the Sumerians and Akkadians.
The publication uses translations by Vladimir Shileiko, Igor Dyakonov, Veronika Afanasyeva and Igor Klochkov that vividly and ably convey to modern-day readers the lofty poetry of this very ancient literature.
The skill of the artist and the beauty of the translations succeeded in bridging the span of six millennia. The sacral group of sculptures is an experiment by a modern-day artist in creating a sort of reminiscence of written artefacts, the search for a form consonant with the original sources. Six thousand years later, an artist combines word and clay, produces a contemporary “rhyme” for the plasticity of cuneiform tablets. To do so, he uses a direct impression of the set type of the Russian text, stressing in that way not only Gutenberg’s invention, but also the contrast between the concreteness of the impression and the sensual plastic nature of the sculpture. From the extensive literature of ancient Mesopotamia, a selection was made of poetic texts that do not divide, but rather connect the 3rd millennium BC and the 3rd millennium AD. Such eternal themes as mourning and love, birth and motherhood, sin and prayer speak to us now as they did to the Sumerians and Akkadians.
The text was typeset by hand in the Bannikovskaya typeface and imprinted in the clay.
The book Seven Incantations, Prayers and Ritual Songs from the Poetry of Sumeria and Babylonia featured in an individual exhibition in the State Hermitage in 2001.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Layout, imprinting of the text in the clay — Vladimir Tsivin
Hand typesetting of the text — Sergei Yashin
The book Seven Incantations, Prayers and Ritual Songs from the Poetry of Sumeria and Babylonia featured in an individual exhibition in the State Hermitage in 2001.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Layout, imprinting of the text in the clay — Vladimir Tsivin
Hand typesetting of the text — Sergei Yashin
Additional information
Details of the creation of this masterpiece
About this edition
About this edition:
-
Year of publication:2000
-
Number of pages:7 sculptures
Language:
Russian
Materials: Jelgava clay, metal oxides and salts.
The publication uses translations by Vladimir Shileiko, Igor Dyakonov, Veronika Afanasyeva and Igor Klochkov that vividly and ably convey to modern-day readers the lofty poetry of this very ancient literature.
The skill of the artist and the beauty of the translations succeeded in bridging the span of six millennia. The sacral group of sculptures is an experiment by a modern-day artist in creating a sort of reminiscence of written artefacts, the search for a form consonant with the original sources. Six thousand years later, an artist combines word and clay, produces a contemporary “rhyme” for the plasticity of cuneiform tablets. To do so, he uses a direct impression of the set type of the Russian text, stressing in that way not only Gutenberg’s invention, but also the contrast between the concreteness of the impression and the sensual plastic nature of the sculpture. From the extensive literature of ancient Mesopotamia, a selection was made of poetic texts that do not divide, but rather connect the 3rd millennium BC and the 3rd millennium AD. Such eternal themes as mourning and love, birth and motherhood, sin and prayer speak to us now as they did to the Sumerians and Akkadians.
The publication uses translations by Vladimir Shileiko, Igor Dyakonov, Veronika Afanasyeva and Igor Klochkov that vividly and ably convey to modern-day readers the lofty poetry of this very ancient literature.
The skill of the artist and the beauty of the translations succeeded in bridging the span of six millennia. The sacral group of sculptures is an experiment by a modern-day artist in creating a sort of reminiscence of written artefacts, the search for a form consonant with the original sources. Six thousand years later, an artist combines word and clay, produces a contemporary “rhyme” for the plasticity of cuneiform tablets. To do so, he uses a direct impression of the set type of the Russian text, stressing in that way not only Gutenberg’s invention, but also the contrast between the concreteness of the impression and the sensual plastic nature of the sculpture. From the extensive literature of ancient Mesopotamia, a selection was made of poetic texts that do not divide, but rather connect the 3rd millennium BC and the 3rd millennium AD. Such eternal themes as mourning and love, birth and motherhood, sin and prayer speak to us now as they did to the Sumerians and Akkadians.
The text was typeset by hand in the Bannikovskaya typeface and imprinted in the clay.
The book Seven Incantations, Prayers and Ritual Songs from the Poetry of Sumeria and Babylonia featured in an individual exhibition in the State Hermitage in 2001.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Layout, imprinting of the text in the clay — Vladimir Tsivin
Hand typesetting of the text — Sergei Yashin
The book Seven Incantations, Prayers and Ritual Songs from the Poetry of Sumeria and Babylonia featured in an individual exhibition in the State Hermitage in 2001.
Participants in the work on this publication:
Layout, imprinting of the text in the clay — Vladimir Tsivin
Hand typesetting of the text — Sergei Yashin
SEVEN INCANTATIONS, PRAYERS AND RITUAL SONGS FROM THE POETRY OF SUMERIA AND BABYLONIA
Clay edition of brilliant translations from the "dead" Sumerian and Akkadian languages