"No Context" #8
by Nicole Brandt
Mixed Media on Paper
9x12” (~23x30.5 cm)
2021
A collage of aged papers, paint, and ephemera reminiscent of the ancient world, featuring one of the most famous images from ancient Mesopotamia. The focal point of this piece is a black and white photo of the protective deity, Lamassu. This sculpture of the pictured winged bull is colossal indeed. Carved of tannish-white gypsum, this gigantic sculpture stands 16 feet tall (just shy of 5 meters) and weighs an astounding 40 tons! In antiquity it stood guard at the entrance to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II’s throne room in the 8th century BC. It can be found today at the Oriental Institute in Chicago where it is on a permanent display in the Khorsabad Court. The museum collection number is A7369, and this thing is not likely to be moved in the course of our lifetime. The floor is even specially reinforced to hold its weight!!
This piece of work is part of my “No Context” Collage Series
This is a series of haphazard collages that I have made while attending conferences and lectures that were relegated to the online world due to Covid. I kept the color palettes minimal and the subject matter undefined to make them easier to make without drawing too much focus away from the presentations I was listening to. These are truly without context, combining texts written in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian, and Greek and potentially other languages, and images of artifacts from Mesopotamia, Persia, the Levant and Egypt without any respect to time or culture. I will continue to add to this series as time goes on as long as I can find more museum guides to clip images from.
by Nicole Brandt
Mixed Media on Paper
9x12” (~23x30.5 cm)
2021
A collage of aged papers, paint, and ephemera reminiscent of the ancient world, featuring one of the most famous images from ancient Mesopotamia. The focal point of this piece is a black and white photo of the protective deity, Lamassu. This sculpture of the pictured winged bull is colossal indeed. Carved of tannish-white gypsum, this gigantic sculpture stands 16 feet tall (just shy of 5 meters) and weighs an astounding 40 tons! In antiquity it stood guard at the entrance to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II’s throne room in the 8th century BC. It can be found today at the Oriental Institute in Chicago where it is on a permanent display in the Khorsabad Court. The museum collection number is A7369, and this thing is not likely to be moved in the course of our lifetime. The floor is even specially reinforced to hold its weight!!
This piece of work is part of my “No Context” Collage Series
This is a series of haphazard collages that I have made while attending conferences and lectures that were relegated to the online world due to Covid. I kept the color palettes minimal and the subject matter undefined to make them easier to make without drawing too much focus away from the presentations I was listening to. These are truly without context, combining texts written in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian, and Greek and potentially other languages, and images of artifacts from Mesopotamia, Persia, the Levant and Egypt without any respect to time or culture. I will continue to add to this series as time goes on as long as I can find more museum guides to clip images from.
by Nicole Brandt
Mixed Media on Paper
9x12” (~23x30.5 cm)
2021
A collage of aged papers, paint, and ephemera reminiscent of the ancient world, featuring one of the most famous images from ancient Mesopotamia. The focal point of this piece is a black and white photo of the protective deity, Lamassu. This sculpture of the pictured winged bull is colossal indeed. Carved of tannish-white gypsum, this gigantic sculpture stands 16 feet tall (just shy of 5 meters) and weighs an astounding 40 tons! In antiquity it stood guard at the entrance to the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II’s throne room in the 8th century BC. It can be found today at the Oriental Institute in Chicago where it is on a permanent display in the Khorsabad Court. The museum collection number is A7369, and this thing is not likely to be moved in the course of our lifetime. The floor is even specially reinforced to hold its weight!!
This piece of work is part of my “No Context” Collage Series
This is a series of haphazard collages that I have made while attending conferences and lectures that were relegated to the online world due to Covid. I kept the color palettes minimal and the subject matter undefined to make them easier to make without drawing too much focus away from the presentations I was listening to. These are truly without context, combining texts written in Sumerian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Arabic, Egyptian, and Greek and potentially other languages, and images of artifacts from Mesopotamia, Persia, the Levant and Egypt without any respect to time or culture. I will continue to add to this series as time goes on as long as I can find more museum guides to clip images from.