Seven Times Three

Seven Times Three is a video installation including 7 iPads in a circle surrounding one in the middle. The 7 iPads show seven different performances of the artist stoning an obelisk with 21 stones in public space in Calgary, Canada. The middle iPad is a video of the Jamarat (stoning of the devil) ritual in Mecca. 

The ritual of stoning of the devil is part of the Muslim pilgrimage (Hajj) that takes place once a year in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The ritual is a symbolic act of denying temptations of the devil based on the story of Abraham and Ismael. 

The choice of obelisk as a symbol of Satan has roots in Egyptian mythology, Satanic and freemasonry cults. In 2000 the Saudi government commissioned a 33 degree well-known freemason architect, Norman Foster, to design a wall around the three obelisks in Jamarat. 

Seven Times Three is an installation questioning the absurdity, history and the politics around the ritual and its architectural dynamics within the recent 12 years.