- Artist
- Stephen Cox born 1946
- Medium
- Porphyry
- Dimensions
- Object: 920 × 2850 × 1000 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1992
- Reference
- T06662
Display caption
This sculpture is made of a rare and valuable stone only found in the Eastern Mountains of Egypt, where the quarries lay untouched between the sixth century A.D. and the twentieth century. Notoriously difficult to work, Imperial Porphry was reserved in Roman times for Imperial sculpture but was rediscovered in Renaissance Italy when stone left by the Romans was carved. The artist describes this work as having to do with transition and reincarnation. It suggests a recumbant Egyptian funerary figure in the process of changing and mutating. The outer surface is polished and suggests a soft skin containing solid or volatile matter.
Gallery label, August 2004
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