Kuwait Oil Effect

 

Kuwait Oil Effect, 2000, 300 x 200 x 50 cm, persian carpet.

 

The object Kuwait Oil Effect, thematizing a bird drowning in oil, was inspired by photos showing the aftermath of the Desert Storm operation in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. When Saddam Hussein saw his power ending, he ordered retaliation with his last strength. The result was a huge environmental  disaster in the form of almost seven hundred burning oil wells in the devastated Kuwaiti territory. The oil from some of them spilled into the sea, where many rare animals, including waterfowl, died as a result. A cormorant drowning in oil has become one of the sad symbols of this devastation.

 

Flying Carpet

The Kuwait Oil Effect sculpture depicts a bird drowning in oil represented by a Persian rug. Trough this cultural symbol of the precise craft of inhabitants of the world where this conflict took place, this scene can be viewed as on the one hand, something that allows the viewer to empathize with the emotions of the cormorant, which fragile body is weighed down by the stiffness of the oil (in this case, the stiffness and weight of the carpet).

 

On the other hand, however, the scene is a vision in which this creature is in a state of transition to death. Since it is a sacrifice, it is represented by the world of Paradise, which is mentioned in the Islamic spiritual tradition. The aesthetics of Persian (paradise) ornaments also refer to the insidious beauty that petroleum products (such as gasoline) create on the water surface , where they show impressive opalesque, iridescent effects.

petroleum