Warriors (2011–2018) evokes ancient artefacts such as Ugaritic idols, citing the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh and other near-eastern epics like the Arabic epic Sira.
Tellingly, the figures in Warriors bear no weapons. Instead, the classical role of the warrior is conveyed through fleeting impressions: in the erect postures of the figures and time-worn sturdiness of the stoneware. While the figures were partially made in response to the experiences of the Lebanese Civil War, they also speak to a broader human condition of opposition, resilience and poise in moments of upheaval. Bridging Mesopotamian references with contemporary notions of displacement, the clay material – which can seem bruised, scarred and shaken – evinces both fragility and resilience. According to painter and poet Etel Adnan, these clay giants ‘hold up the sky of the Levant’, preserving an ancient past despite relentless erosion by the present.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Simone Fattal (b. 1942, Damascus) was raised in Lebanon, where she studied philosophy in Beirut before continuing her education at the Sorbonne in Paris. She returned to Beirut in 1969 and worked as a visual artist until the Lebanese Civil War. In 1980, she moved to California and founded the Post-Apollo Press, an independent publishing house focused on experimental literature. In 1988, she enrolled at the Art Institute of San Francisco, marking a return to artistic practice with a new focus on sculpture and ceramics. Fattal currently lives in Paris. Her solo exhibitions include Voix des Antiquités Orientales (Voices of the Near Eastern Antiquities), Louvre Museum, Paris (2024) and Works and Days, MoMA PS1, New York (2019). Group exhibitions include 59th Venice Biennale (2022); 16th Lyon Biennale (2022); 12th Berlin Biennale (2022); Luogo e Segni (Place and Signs), Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019).
EXHIBITED WORKS
Simone Fattal (b. 1942)
Warrior II, 2011
Stoneware fired in a wood kiln, metal base
132 × 60 × 40 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Simone Fattal (b. 1942)
Warrior III, 2011
Stoneware fired in a wood kiln, metal base
114 × 60 × 40 cm
Courtesy of the artist
