The seven pillars of wisdom

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom draws its title from the autobiographical account of British soldier T. E. Lawrence. Keeping this historical aspect of deconstruction/reconstruction, Rechmaoui creates an installation of domestic objects – various materials collected from crumbled ruins of a residential building – embedded in a concrete pillar; a basic structural element in urban architecture. Flowers, pillows, among other decorative items reflect the burden of time as it transforms society and the individual from the colonial to the post-colonial, and the modern to the post-modern.