Eyes that Weep,
Eyes that Pierce

The year 2025 marks the bicentennial of a series of lavish evening parties hosted in 1825 by Sir John Soane, the renowned British architect and avid collector of art and antiquities at his London residence. To create a poetic, mystical, and dramatic ambiance for these nights, Soane meticulously orchestrated the lighting and arrangement of his house and collection. At the heart of this spectacle was his latest and treasured acquisition: the alabaster sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian king Seti the First. Displayed in the basement that Soane had always envisioned as a sepulchral chamber and crypt, the sarcophagus was lit in a reddish light to captivate the elite guests who travelled across the country to see the monumental object.

Eyes that Weep, Eyes that Pierce takes the form of an audio narrative that unfolds around the museum’s different rooms –available on Bloomsberg Connects app. It is narrated from the perspective of the Egyptian sky goddess Nut, who is carved inside of Seti’s sarcophagus. Nut is imagined wandering through the museum, recalling the many eyes that have looked upon her ––the ancient Egyptian priest who had to remove the king’s body to protect him, the Italian explorer who removed the sarcophagus and shipped it to London on behalf of the British consul in Egypt, the British architect-collector who bought the sarcophagus and placed it in his house, and the countless visitors who now come to gaze at her image.

The narrative culminates with the listener standing before the sarcophagus where they encounter the second video component of this installation, portraying Soane's house through Nut's eyes ––a meditation on the charged act of looking at what ought not to be seen.