Spirit of Hathor: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

Natalie Clark was selected as one of twelve internationally renowned sculptors to create a large scale work to be presented on the Giza Plateau in front of the Pyramids in Egypt at Art D'Égypte’s Forever Is Now Exhibition. It is an important global event being held under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Patronage of UNESCO.

Made of Corten steel and Carrara marble, The Spirit of Hathor honors the Divine Feminine and Women’s Empowerment with a modern representation of the Egyptian Goddess Hathor, the matriarchal mistress of the sky.

FOREVER IS NOW | 2nd EDITION

Pyramids of Giza, Cairo, Egypt
October 27, 2022 - November 30, 2022

The second edition of Forever is Now reflects on time and timelessness, land and history, ecology and humanity, situating contemporary artworks in the magnificent site of the pyramids. Through an immersive experience of public art, the exhibition envisions a future that is anchored in a deep knowledge of the past, indicating that there is no conception of the future without history, and that there is no time without the present.  

Forever is Now II is not simply a revival of this history, for the past can never be complete in the present. Rather, it contributes a contemporary artistic legacy in a place of worldwide significance, a place where nature was a divine force, where there were gods of the sun and vegetation, and animals were sacred manifestations. The pyramids, built in alignment with the rising and setting sun, point to a cycle of death and rebirth and the pathways from one world to the next. They express connections between the terrestrial and the celestial. 

The artists showcasing their work in Forever is Now II respond to these links and rituals. Their artworks, made from a combination of natural and industrial materials, are in dialogue with Giza’s 4600-year-old iconic monuments of natural stone, pointing to our past and present conditions and the connections between man and technology, nature and inheritance. 

They ask questions such as: How do artists negotiate between our ancient world and technological futures, between eternal monuments and endangered environments? How can we move forward without the memory of ancestral teachings? What is the nature of our relationship to land amid our increasingly inhabited digital realities? How do artists become agents of change? How can we reshape the future? As Forever is Now II coincides with Egypt’s hosting of 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, it further contextualizes our age of environmental crisis. 

The overarching vision behind this project is to build a culture of interconnectivity and care, where dreams of the future feature the underrepresented, empower women, demonstrate respect for the environment and an understanding of what we are leaving behind, both in terms of creativity and destruction. Bringing together these new site-specific works by artists around the world, Forever is Now II is intertwined with communal participation. It includes cross-cultural exchange with the local community, implicating a high level of engagement with different publics, not just visitors but also craftspeople, students and laborers, providing new ways of accessing contemporary art for the uninitiated. 

Forever is Now II is an ode to the transcendental power of art, where historical and global influence converge and artists can become co-creators, collaborators and protagonists in a larger narrative of art.  Art becomes a collective responsibility, a dialogic conversation across time that enables each artist to contribute his/her own story to history. 

Photo Credits: MO4 Network | Hesham Alsaifi