2011.4 She

To produce this monolithic sculpture, Bosnian-born artist Bojan Šarčevič traveled to the Silk Road city of Yazd in central Iran to acquire this mass of onyx. The 1.7-ton stone was transported by truck from Iran to England, where one side was meticulously carved and polished, while the obverse was left in its natural state. On the worked side, the precise geometry of the recessed rectangles reveals the luminous nature of the stone. The other side shows the roughly varied yet natural surface of the hidden landscape that lay below it. The flanking shorter sides of the stone reveal its sedimentary connective tissue, built up over centuries of time.

Šarčevič chose a material laden with cultural and art historical connections, among them the ancient Egyptian use of onyx vessels for ritual and burial, as well as the ancient Greek and Roman importation of stone for lavish ornamentation. She prompts an array of thoughts, associations, and images: the ancient and the modern; the natural and the manufactured; the organic fractal and the rigidly geometric.

Until 2010: Bojan Šarčevič, b. 1974

2010: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased through Modern Art, London

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the copy of the invoice dated November 17, 2010, in the Collections Records object file (2011.4).

Apply to objects where number equals 2011.4