Wafaa Bilal, "Lovely Pink," 2015
WAFAA BILAL
Pink David, 2015
From the series "Lovely Pink"
Cold cast resin and enamel paint
9 x 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 inches
Courtesy of Driscoll Babcock Galleries
WAFAA BILAL
Perseus Beheading Medusa, 2015
From the series "Lovely Pink"
Cold cast resin, enamel paint, shrink wrap, and crude oil
13 5 1/4 x 7 inches
Courtesy of Driscoll Babcock Galleries
CURRENTLY ON VIEW: Stamp 1st Floor, West Study Lounge
For this series, Wafaa Bilal reproduced a dozen of the most recognizable sculptures in Western art history—here you see replicas of Michelangelo’s David (1501–1504) and Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa (c. 1554)—on a scale not much larger than tourist souvenirs. Bilal made his figures of resin and coated them with shrink wrap and slick enamel, all products of the petroleum industry. The work responds to recent destruction by ISIS of ancient Assyrian sites, including Palmyra in Syria and Nimrud in Bilal’s home country of Iraq, raising critical questions about human impulses to destroy and to preserve cultural heritage and competing values that inform these decisions.
Stamp Gallery, 2016
