We are the earth and the sky, a fusion of the interconnectedness of materials and spirits, Ali Cherri excavated and sublime in “My Monument”, a place of a vast performance incarnation curated by Emma Dean at the British Centre for Contemporary Art in the UK. Here, the monument is considered both as heritage and soil, and the possibility arises.
The show revolves around three broad sections that communicate with the seats to create a cohesive meditation for the beginning and ending. We go from the earth to the sky, and architecture becomes degradation, from what is below to what is above. In the first part, is a large clay sculpture that has become the signature of Cherri. From a dim point of view, their appearance is instantly dramatic and totem. Some are inspired by surrealism, e.g. All solids melt into the air (2024), one of the characters’ arms and face disappears into a visually impaired, hand-shaped crawling stick. Others are engraved in a more mysterious realm. That’s it Titan 2 (2022) – The award for Cherri being awarded Silver Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, the lion incorporates the Mayan cult vase into a weighted muddy figure.
exist Sphinx (2024), we consider the superposition of various symbolisms: the Sphinx figure, the ancient Egyptian spiritual guardian, here it looks like a part of the Italian futurist who is partly Assyrian, with visible snakes, spear feet on the Sphinx, establishing an ancient territory with a mysterious city-like mountaintop, once a mysterious city in New York City, and associated with New York. Sphinx is amputated. It relies on bronze prosthetics with leonine claws to create visual tension through an unstable feeling. In the merger of soil and bronze, comments on human civilization often become offensive hierarchies. In Cherri Sphinxbronze fixes mud, but mud generally prevails because it corrodes bronze.
His original sculpture evokes an eternal encounter with matter and human society, connecting the environment with power and violence. Clay is the basic material for Cherri sculpture. The mud is both fragile and primitive, acting as a line connecting these sculptures with them Men and gods and mud (2022), a three-channel film that tells the story of Sultan’s Melo Dam, through the lens of mud brick workers and their relationship to the land and stars.
During the show, visitors encounter another dedicated to conflict fatigue and the impact of war on humans and nature. Watcher (2023) Located on a split island in Cyprus, there is a demarcation line scattered between the Republic of Cyprus and the Republic of Northern Cyprus, remembering vivid wounds. An old woman summed up in the movie: “There is no good war.”
Focus on the Watcher Watcher Follow his boredom and hallucination. He stood like a living monument. He was attacked with exhausted (“Wake up, soldier, open your eyes” warning engraved with words engraved on the wall of the watchtower). However, the only threat encountered along this controversial area is the birds falling on the window glass, ridiculous touches and omens. The soldiers’ long nights and nights stared at the unmanned land in the clearings, pierced by the weird light. In this movie Men and gods and mudthe flashing light conveys a signal, a message and a forward-looking one. These lights say there is another world, a universe and spiritual dimension, and if we pay close attention to it, we will blink. This is strengthened Watcher Through the incredible encounters that take place at the end of the film, not only the space between dreams and reality is explored, but also the scope of the intellect and institution that can be retained in this case.
The spectral encounter of this film is re-engraved and avatarized Seven soldiers (2023), wearing the huge headliner lining of Parker’s enclosed soldiers, as if part of the undead forest, is a bunch of sleepers. A series of representative watercolor paintings Watchtower The decomposition phases of the various stages of the pear hitting birds and prickly pears illustrate the art series of Cherri as a sculptor, filmmaker and painter, and captures the show’s allegory: What will eventually die; death may rise again.
The last part on the side of the Baltic exhibition space shows a new commission. In recent years, the back of the wooden glass shelf commemorating the empty base has been overthrown in recent years. Collapsed monuments 1-6 (Halkif, Aleppo, Baghdad, Richmond, Virginia, Vienna, Bristol)2024, reflects the moment and history. These monuments once erected to commemorate the Imperial slave traders, dictators, alliance leaders and other infamous figures, demonstrating the collapse of the history and myth of the permanent movement.
Cherri studies deformations from materiality to more metaphysical reflections. The handicrafts (the front masks that feature in his sculptures) made a statement about the value of the auction art to give them new meaning and accessibility beyond their private collections. On a more symbolic level, the mud contains deformation. If legend tells us that men are created with soil, then mud is the embodiment of will survival. However, in this photo, war invades.
Violent conflict is an inappropriate accelerator of this mythical depravity. Its losses and chaos produce destruction and uncertain redemption. This crack reveals the space of boundaries (one thinks Balzac is the Islamic mediating phase between death and the day of judgment), the area of body disorientation and the clear penetration of Cherri invites us to live in. These thoughts are periodic, with a faint beacon of hope that something new can pop out of the ashes.
Today, Ali Cherri seems to be everywhere in New York City’s Swiss Institute, France’s Bourse de Commerce and Frac Bretagne, the split in Vienna and the performances of the 12th website, Santa Fe International. That’s why some works may feel they are shown elsewhere to a large extent – but this does not reduce the timeliness of Cherri’s prolific catalogue and information whether we can be responsible future ancestors based on our material and spiritual reality and purpose.
Cherri was born in the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), and was directly affected by Israel’s aggression against Lebanon in 2024. For artists, the theme of war’s influence on nature and humanity is not abstract. Cemeteries and chrysalid have the possibility of rebirth immediately, and “How I Become a Monument” can also be seen as a proof of resilience and survival. Each of us embodies a provocative monument.
“My monumentIt will be exhibited at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in the UK until October 12, 2025.
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