Hang Our Gods
(Craft Contemporary)
Hang Our Gods is a site-specific installation recreating a Ba‘athist-era diplomatic setting circa 1980.
The work traces connections between Mesopotamia and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq through three vintage objects that trigger hidden scent releases behind the gallery wall.
The telephone, dialed to different numbers, broadcasts Nebuchadnezzar II’s royal inscriptions—ancient calls for reconstruction that Hussein answered by rebuilding Babylon with bricks bearing his name. The television, when turned on, plays footage of the 1979 Ba‘ath Party purge.
The radio, when turned on and tuned to different tracks, transmits a 1976 family cassette from Iraq, preserving the voices of the artist’s grandfather, cousins, aunts, and uncles singing to the artist's father after he emigrated to the US.
Six tinctures created by the artist pair ancient materials—wood ash, bitumen, and gypsum—with Ba‘athist-era aromas, creating olfactory dialogues spanning millennia.
Hang Our Gods, 2025
Site-specific installation with audio, video, and scent
Painted wood curtain rods; gilded brass curtain tiebacks, 1800s; rope silk damask curtain tiebacks, 1800s; brass curtain rings, 1800s; brass curtain rod finials, 1800s; silk damask curtains, 1920s; gilded brass flagpole finial, 1800s; oak flagpole with cast iron stand, 1950s; original Iraqi flag, 1963; cantilever chair with tubular steel and faux leather, 1990s, reupholstered with raw silk, 1968; reproduction Louis XV–style chair in wood with gold elements, 1970s–80s, reupholstered with silk damask fabric, 1960s; reproduction Louis XV–style side table in wood with gold elements, 1950s–70s, modified to match chair; reproduction Louis XV–style jardinière in silver-lacquered bronze, 1960s–90s; Real Touch carnations, eucalyptus, ferns, and roses; vegetable-dyed Persian Kerman rug, 1800s; Siemens Brothers Neophone model no. 366 Bakelite rotary telephone, 1930s–40s; National CRT television model TR-572DU, 1975; Siera tube radio model SA3107A, 1960s; six artist-made tinctures in 190-proof ethanol
Scent elements, tinctured by the artist in 190-proof ethanol from wood ash, gypsum, and bitumen, emitted through paired wall apertures:
Above telephone (wood ash) — Sacred Offering (left); Chemical Warfare (right)
Above television (gypsum) — Archeological Tomb (left); Mass Grave (right)
Above radio (bitumen) — Divine Seal (left); Oil Fields (right)
Exhibition: Ether: Aromatic Mythologies, May 31–October 26, 2025
Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, California
Photo courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles
Exhibition Installation Images: Marc Walker
(Additional Exhibition Installation Images: Robert Wedemeyer)
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