Haseeb Ahmed

Vultures play a key role in the iconography established in Ahmed’s artwork. They sit at the intersection of fertility, as established in the Wind Egg Trilogy, and death. Since the beginning of this project Ahmed has been working with Sparta, a white backed African Vulture and her falconer Dominique Willems. Since Sparta could not be in the exhibition space, her presence was evoked through the hologram and scent.

Working with perfumer Sean Respet, Ahmed synthesized the scent of Sparta. It is now emmitted from a reliquary of sorts. The form is derived from that of the Trudelturm, a vertical wind tunnel in Adlershof Germany building in 1936. It was made to reproduce the conditions of constantly falling within its walls. It's shape is that of a modern wind egg.