An exhibition of the Ethiopian-American artist residing in Los Angeles, Oul Erezko, launched in the United States of America under the title "Memories of the Lost Sphinx". In it, Erizko presents six pictures that show the different features of the legendary creature, the Sphinx, in a different way, with an ancient Egyptian flavor that dominated the displayed artworks.
Some of the images show a black and yellow snake wrapped in palpable scales, two images of a lion posed against vehicles from space, a falcon with wings while landing on a gauntlet, the head of basketball player Kevin Durant, and a blurry image of a spider approaching the ear of singer-songwriter Jesse Boykins III. In a space on the ground floor of the gallery painted completely black. In the center stands a rotating golden disco ball shaped like a bust of Nefertiti, according to Art News.
The story of carving and forming the Sphinx began in ancient Egypt, where the creature was depicted with the head of a man, the body of a lion and the wings of a falcon. From Asia, he had a snake in the tail, to all this, Erezko added a spider.
"I wanted to present surreal images, for me the spider you can find under the Sphinx or the Great Pyramids. But you never think of that when you just look at these archival photos of the Sphinx or the pyramids. This was something I wanted to address it, but in a very indirect way.”
He added that he saw the Great Sphinx and realized "how difficult it is to make it a different picture from what is in the history books."
Other artists before him have addressed this topic, most notably Kara Walker, who portrayed the Sphinx as a woman with African features while Erezko said it was completely different for him, adding: "I'm not trying to outdo Kara Walker by any means."
Mon, Mar. 14, 2022
