Visual Palimpsest

5000-year-old Saharan arrowhead, powder coated cube, mirror, silver gelatine paper, 1w l.e.d. (50x50x50cm) 2022

A palimpsest is something that is reused but bears traces of its original form.

I have created a ‘visual palimpsest’ whereby the reflective surface of silver paper exposed to 5000-year-old starlight reflects a 5000-year-old Saharan flint arrowhead.

Using the periscope principle, one of the reflective surfaces is a mirror and the other is silver photo paper, so the viewer is presented with two images. One a perfect facsimile of the flint arrowhead and the other a fading blurred image of the 5000-year-old object reflected onto 5000-year-old light surface.