Memory Hole

Ayam Yaldo is interested in memory, which is layered, fragmented, composed of impressions and blurred edges. Memory never arrives the same way twice. In her new body of work, she connects it with the hole. The latter can reveal as much as it conceals; it frames and contains. In the memory hole, things are deposited, forgotten, and brought back to consciousness.—In the gallery, a single installation occupies the entire small room. The display highlights the large Warka vase. This artifact, also called the Uruk vase, dates from the fourth millennium BC and represents one of the earliest stages of human life. A single perspective of the enigmatic space reminiscent of the excavation site is offered. In contrast, or in complement, several pieces of varying sizes are arranged in the large room. Among them, laser-printed tiles reveal the remains of the Sumerian city of Uruk, a fire-blackened tablet contains an offering of dates and a staff placed on the ground symbolizes a measuring rod, a measuring instrument.—Using a variety of techniques and materials, from 3D printing to handcrafted ceramics, the artist appropriates Mesopotamian forms, not to reconstruct, but to linger on the resonances that emerge from them. Her works exist in a space between ruin and reconstruction, in which memory shifts, fractures, and persists.—The artist imagines her exhibition as one of the missing registers on the Warka vase, whose images have been erased over time. Her works are inscribed on one of the horizontal bands, alongside reeds and cereals, oxen and goats, men carrying baskets and jars as sacrifice to the temple of Inanna. By playing with the codes and traditions associated with archaeology and accumulating a collection of fragments, Ayam Yaldo succeeds in proposing a personal and poetic version of history.

—JOANNIE BOULAIS