Her Hand Made of Granite

Part of my project, The Fourth Pyramid Belongs To Her, this short film is a response to a drawing found in the French encyclopaedic series of books, Description de l’Égypte. Published between 1809 and 1822, it documented the findings and observations of the savants who accompanied Napoleon during the French invasion and occupation of Egypt from 1798 to 1801.

The drawing titled View of the Ruins from the Southeast depicts a vertical landscape of Memphis, two-thirds of which is a sky lined with a few clouds. In the background, a small body of water bracketed by palm trees is accentuating by its clear waters the three pyramids of Giza visible in the distance. Shallow sand hills extend in the narrow middle ground; through them runs a curved line of tall grass that connects the water with a group of people, two distinguishable by their French army hats. The scene in the foreground is framed by four tall palm trees on each side. That the palm trees reach the sky at the edge of the frame renders the three human figures standing in their shade insignificant in size. The three men, one of whom is Napoleon, identified by his two-cornered hat and coat, stand around a colossal statue of a hand. The statue appears to have been lifted onto a wooden platform, built out of the freshly cut down palm tree, as indicated by the surrounding debris and tools on the ground. While the two men, with their folded-up sleeves, are at work measuring the sculptured hand, Napoleon is standing upright with both his hands touching it, as though posing for a portrait with his latest possession.

With Her Hand Made of Granite, I offer an alternative way of seeing and touching this sculptured hand by projecting my fond nostalgic gaze looking at my grandmother’s hand in family photographs onto it. My spoken words mourning the loss of my grandmother can, thus, be heard as though addressed to the ancient Egyptians, and the granite surface of the statue may, therefore, be imagined as the delicate skin of a loving grandmother’s hand; touched, caressed, and missed. In doing so, I hope to invite a more intimate way of seeing my ancestors and their personal belongings.