The gold ewer is an extraordinarily engaging object,
and I was absolutely thrilled to accept the commission from the Gilbert Collection, and
to make a piece in response to the ewer, on the occasion of its departure to Ankara, to Turkey.
Why are we so attracted and fascinated by gold? Gold is immutable. It is untouched by
environmental conditions, and it won't bear signs of time, such as corrosion or patina – like other
metals. Its luminosity is infinite, and that's also one of the reasons why it is so covetable.
Gold is also unchanged in contact with fire, and it won't lose any of its weight due to oxidization
like other metals, so gold's durability and rarity made it suitable for currency.
But its vulnerability lies there too. Gold objects and jewellery will always be
under the threat of being melted and transformed into bullion.
The gold ewer is actually quite an unusual piece and it's been a source
of inspiration since I discovered it in a handling session at the V&A in 2015.
I'm often interested in the unknown life of objects that naturally outlive the maker and
the owner, and I was thinking about its purpose. How was it used, if at all? How
long was the original spout? How did it break? Also where is the missing part of the spout?
The aim of provenance research is to discover and explore who owned an object over the course of
its history. We do this to better understand the objects and the worlds they inhabited.
Arthur Gilbert was a prolific collector of works of decorative art.
He acquired the ewer in 1989 from an antiquities dealer in the United States.
What Arthur Gilbert did not know, and could not have known at the time,
was that this dealer was secretly involved in the trade of illicit antiquities.
We shared this information with the Turkish Ministry of Culture, and their experts
established that the ewer had been illegally excavated and exported from the country.
The Gilbert Trust, which acts as the guardian of the collection,
was deeply troubled to learn that Arthur Gilbert had been deceived about the us true provenance.
Arthur Gilbert always wanted to share his collection with the world,
which is why the Gilbert Collection today is on public display at the V&A,
and why numerous items from the collection can be seen in museums across the globe.
Together with the Turkish Ministry of Culture, the Gilbert Trust decided that
the most appropriate place for the ewer would be the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
The Gilbert Trust donated the ewer to this museum in 2021, and in Turkey this
has been treated as the restitution of an important part of their cultural heritage.
The departure of this beautiful ewer naturally leaves a gap in the Gilbert Collection,
where it occupied a unique place as the only object of its kind.
In a museum, conversations are always sparked by the objects on display – this
is why it's so fantastic that the Gilbert Trust has commissioned Adi
to create an art piece that responds to the ewer and its story.
This wonderful piece keeps the ewer are present in the collection and opens up a wider conversation.
I wanted to make a piece that embraces the absence of the ewer in the collection,
but also highlights the unusual story behind it.
A funnel concentrates and provides new direction.
It is an accompanying object to a jug or a jar – it connects between spaces, and between objects.
The funnel is infinite. A funnel is a generous object – it doesn't hold its content for long,
and content is usually returned through a funnel, so there is an openness and acceptance in the form
and in the function of a funnel that resonates for me with the story of gifting the ewer.
The title of the piece is 'Place to Place'.
It relates to a transitional state in time, as well as between countries and between spaces.
The interior of the piece is highly
polished – it's reflective and it presents as warped fluid space.
It invites the observer to become part of the work through reflection.
The material composition of the piece is identical to the historic ewer. I have recreated
the ancient alloy of the ewer – it is 90% gold, 9% silver and 1% copper. It is
placed on a headrest made from chalcedony, which is a typical Turkish stone.
I have learned so much from this project about the materiality of gold,
about the history of gold. I also learned things about my own practice and my own work
and I just want to thank the Gilbert Trust for this fantastic opportunity.