A Few Decent Ways To Drown
Installation. Limestone, steel, carbon paper and sunlight. Three fountains
Fountain 1: 400 x 130 x 27cm
Fountain 2: 250 x 253 x 27cm
Fountain 3: 320 x 300 x 27cm
Does water ever remain the same? Is it the same water of bygone ages and their eroded landmarks?
Nassereddine's installations, texts and videos explore the potential of language to create unstable monuments, and poetry as a point of access to long disappeared places and people.
Drawing on Arabic poetry from the 6th century onwards, A Few Decent Ways to Drown explores the fragile relationship between poetry, water, and time. The three fountains, whose shape recalls ornamental water features once found across cities, courtyards, and palaces throughout the region - their significance preserved through poems and texts. The fountains’ surface is made of papers found tucked away between the pages of volumes that belonged to collectors and editors of poetry manuscripts, still retaining their inscriptions and observations. Exposure to the sun over time has altered the papers' color and texture.