The Rock Became the Object Itself
2019
Embroidery on textile 115 x 75 cm, lead, bricks, tape
Installation at LE18, Marrakech
Molybdomancy (divination using molten metal) by Fatima Mehdi
The Rock Became the Object Itself is an installation about objects as markers of personification, dedicated to bricks and Moroccan fortune telling cards. Where bricks are the building blocks of the outside/visual world and mostly handled by men, clubs, cubs, swords, and coins, the four suits of the Carta, are the building blocks of the inside/invisible world, mostly handled by and for women. Chouaff(a)s use the cards and shapes formed out of melted lead to predict the future and offer psychological support, in search for answers concerning marriage, children or the loyalty of a husband, a practice that has become largely marginalized. The Rock Became the Object Itself tells a personal story revolving around transformation, desire and mirroring behaviours wherein bricks and suits are the construction blocks of a transformation field of fictional figures in search of magic. By picking up the needle and thread to write, the artist joins a long line of women who have turned the domestic arts into political expression, an act of self-care that doubles as an act of resistance.
(c) Abdelhak Acim
