What if you could touch the artifacts at the museum? What if they could respond?
In line with my current work on decolonizing collections of Ancient Egyptian artifacts, this piece titled “Free Instruments: Mask of a Woman” consists of a “replica” of a mummy mask on display at the Allard Pierson museum in Amsterdam, integrated with conductive metallic paint and electronics that allow it to be played as an instrument when it is touched. Doing so, the works in this series challenge the idea that such valued objects must solely be viewed as “artifacts”; that is, as objects to be studied and observed in perpetuity from behind glass. By turning them into instruments that not only permit but require touch, they are put back into communities, given life once more, as well as the agency to respond differently to the different ways they might be handled.
This specific mask was chosen as it contains both Roman and Egyptian stylistic elements,
representing a form of cultural hybridity and a moment in which Ancient Egypt was experiencing rapid social change, as contemporary Egypt is today. By integrating ancient aesthetics with high-tech, electronic and digital components, this work decolonizes the way audiences think about artifacts by placing them as part of a living, dynamic artistic tradition. Touch is intrinsic to this work, as it produces different tones (llike a musical instrument) when it is touched, pressed, and caressed in different ways.
The mummy mask’s original gold coating is replaced in my version with brass, which has a similar appearance but which is deliberately patinated to encourage audiences to re-think the “artifact” from being an invaluable “treasure” that should be preserved forever, to something beautiful and alive but fundamentally utilitarian that will change as it is used and handled.
The shiny, matte, rough, and smooth surfaces give the work a complex tactility which is echoed in the musical tones it produces, since these different coatings all have different conductive properties. As a result, the tones it produces are a combination of the way it is touched and the specific surface being touched, so it can be explored auditorily as well as visually. In this way, this piece only truly comes alive when it is touched, decolonizing the way Ancient Egyptian artifacts are understood by removing them from museum display cases and encouraging a kind of bodily communion with the ancient dead.
Exhibited as a workshop with inherit: Heritage in Transformation at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
