Series of 12 Duratrans C-prints in light boxes (backlit paper).

65 x 81 cm each.

Produced with the support of Darat al Funun–The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman. 

 

Transparencies depict the breeze-block shells of unfinished housing developments on the outskirts of Amman, abandoned since the 2008 global financial crisis hit the region. These ‘new ruins’ of the contemporary Arab world are devoid of any lived history; empty shells awaiting narratives that may never occur. They represent a vision of modern living that is now ghostly and decaying, not unlike the ideology that underpinned it. The photographs are presented as a series of negative light boxes resembling x-rays, enhancing the skeletal quality of the structures. At the same time, Sarkissian bestows an almost monumental quality on the hollow and life-less spaces.