Roba Vecchia (The Wheel of Fortune), 2006
Lara Baladi
Roba Vecchia (The Wheel of Fortune), 2006
Mirrors and steel, Back projection. Computer software
Installation view
The Townhouse gallery of Contemporary Art, Cairo
Overview
Roba Vecchia, The Wheel of Fortune, is a life-sized kaleidoscope which the viewer can enter and become a part of. The artist worked with a computer programmer to create software that organises fragments of the artist’s work in a pattern that mutates randomly and combines the projected photographic images in an infinite and non-repetitive way. The installation presents viewers with a shifting array of kaleidoscopic images which evokes the accumulation and reworking of leftovers of the past in a continuous rewriting of history. The work’s illusory, yet historically and culturally resonant, sacred geometry resembles moving stained glass windows, mandalas, arabesques, the microcosm of cellular life or the infinite night sky.
This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 8.
Related
Baladi, Lara
Interdisciplinary artist Lara Baladi employs photography, video, sound and installations to create interwoven images of past and present, myth and reality, with a focus on the Middle East and particularly the Arab Spring. She explores ways in which interactions between images and technology affect visual narratives.