Brief Eternity: Contemporary Stela

Brief Eternity: Contemporary Stela is based on the Wepemofret Stela at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley, California. The stela-a low relief painted sculpture dating from the 27th Century B.C.-shows the deceased man sitting on the left with an accompanying text in hieroglyphs listing all of the goods that the owner needs to continue existence in the hereafter. In this version, the silk-screened selection from the original is covered by vacuum-formed objects that a contemporary man (represented in plastic) might take with him. From a distance, the contemporary objects appear as ambiguous ripples blurring the past; one sees through the present to the past. On closer inspe-ction, the objects are resolved. The hieroglyph of 1,000 bowls of sweet wine is covered by some Coca-Cola bottles, the ‘chief of the royal archives” symbol is cov-ered by a typewriter and books, and the ‘com-mander of the ship” by an airplane. Other hiero-glyphs also correspond to their contemporary plastic equivalents.