Plowshares Into Swords Into Plowshares
Nida Sinnokrot‘s installation Ka (JCB, JCB) pushes my reluctant spiritual buttons profoundly. Primal is a word that is overused, but in this case it rings true.
NIDA SINNOKROT
Ka (JCB, JCB), 2009
2 JCB 1CX backhoe arms
Commissioned & Produced by Sharjah Biennial
Sinnokrot is an artist whose films, installations and sculptures often explore the complex realities of conflict and diaspora. Ka transposes the raised-arms Egyptian hieroglyph of an ancient belief system into a contemporary sculpture. An iconoclastic icon, a primal gesture as much about beckoning the heavens as it is a gesture of despair. All critique and political imperative follows from this simple clash between techne and sacred pose but within a uniquely Palestinian context, Sinnokrot imagines Ka as a humble monument to a future peace.
Note that the assembly was made possible by the labor of Indian workers in a labor camp who Nida bonded with over a shared love of metalwork shop skills.
Unsurprisingly, cricket features heavily in the laborers off-time pursuits.
Watch here for Nida’s kite project soon…
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