The True Story of a Stone
23rd March - 30th October 8th, 2023 / Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia / Commissioned for Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America
The True Story of a Stone tells and extends the story of a specific stone that around 2,400 years ago was carved into a classical sculpture of the Greek goddess Demeter. This complicated and nuanced story which you can read handwritten across the gallery walls, ends in the unlikely form of a marble duck.
In the gallery, works selected by the artist from PAFA’s own collection illustrate this story of geological and human time. Mounted on the building’s façade sits a new marble duck that can be seen from the exhibition space, or from the street below. This duck now occupies the last spot that Demeter occupied before she was destroyed.