By Halim Naji, an Iraqi artist from 1970s Iraq and the new anthropological exhibition (British Museum)
This exhibition takes the debate about weather art and the impact it has on the lives of all those that inhabit the planet to another level. Also an attempt to turn the project of weather vanes, perhaps the oldest form of traditional art, into a better study of its origins and implications to be found today. Because as an ancient process, weather vanes are still used today in different cultural settings and to modernize them, it is worth taking a more accurate viewpoint.
The Project works as a collaboration between artists, photographers, film makers, and architects. Our project is part of the museum’s Anthropocene Exploration exhibition.
This is an exhibition focusing on the origins of weather vanes across cultures, artforms, and media.
Weather vanes are exhibited using fossils collected from different continents to show how the weather is constructed through fossil archeology. We show them in different artforms, this exhibition focuses on the design, craftsmanship, and the use of different materials. We wanted to show the historical evolution of weather vanes from ancient seeds to modern weather engines.
We wanted to compare them with each other and others with the same techniques and similar materials.
“Speculative Everything” by Halim Naji, collected from archaeological sites around the world. They have been placed inside a digital environment as a form of interaction.
The moon flyover by Gallo Images, an Australian contemporary art organization. Created with a photography shot from the crew of the IMAX large screen film. The universe in 3D, with projections from astronomy, with a virtual reality experience, and with a robotic operator