Children of Days

Sahej Rahal, artist

born 1988

Children of Days, 2016

Where object was made: Lawrence, Kansas, United States

Material/technique: recycled materials; poultry netting; cement; iron oxide; polyurethane

Credit line: Courtesy of the artist

Accession number: IA2016.006

Not on display

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Temporal Turn: Art and Speculation in Contemporary Asia

The title of Sahej Rahal’s installation pays homage to the lyrical text Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History (2013) by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. Like in Galeano’s stories, which resurrect forgotten and unknown aspects of the past, Rahal’s sculptural installation excavates remnants of an
undiscovered past while simultaneously hinting at an undetermined future. By using locally sourced recycled materials, Rahal purposely evokes local histories and in the process physically embodies Lawrence through the city’s refuse as a way of conjuring lost relics and highlighting countless shared futures. The large pyramidal structure was constructed using solid oak church pews, while the cylindrical shape with fins was inspired by two large steel rings, all procured from the 12th and Haskell Recycle Center. Rahal also used materials from the Spencer Museum’s store rooms.
The works’ red earthen appearance was created from a mixture of cement and iron-oxide to suggest the look of earthenware or terracotta, some of the earliest material remnants of ancient civilizations. The crumbling, decayed façade and the works’ placement on a bed of river stones further evoke an archaeological excavation and prompt the feeling of ruins or wreckage, as if they are artifacts from an unremembered past or fragments from an alien spacecraft that have crashed to Earth. Perhaps even, as Rahal suggests, “fragments of the Death Star.”