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—gypsum, bitumen, and wood ash—with Ba'athist-era aromas, creating olfactory dialogues spanning millennia.
Hang Our Gods, 2025.
Site-specific installation incorporating audio, video, and scent.
Ether: Aromatic Mythologies, Craft Contemporary (Los Angeles, California), 2025.
Photo courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles.
Exhibition Installation Image: Marc Walker.
Hang Our Gods, 2025.
Site-specific installation incorporating audio, video, and scent.
Ether: Aromatic Mythologies, Craft Contemporary (Los Angeles, California), 2025.
Photo courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles.
Exhibition Installation Image: Marc Walker.
Hang Our Gods (detail), 2025.
Photo courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles.
Exhibition Installation Image: Marc Walker.
Hang Our Gods (detail), 2025.
Photo courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles.
Exhibition Installation Image: Marc Walker.
Hang Our Gods (right side of photo), 2025.
Site-specific installation incorporating audio, video, and scent.
Ether: Aromatic Mythologies, Craft Contemporary (Los Angeles, California), 2025.
Photo courtesy of Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles.
Exhibition Installation Image: Marc Walker.