Solenoglyphous C.C

Solenoglyphous C.C (2023)

Emerging from the sand, creating a dystopian landscape, are oddly shaped glass sculptures directly inspired by the fangs of Cerastes Cerastes, a species of snake native to Saudi Arabia’s deserts.

These uncanny crystal glass formations recall the reptile’s iridescent color, and allude to the visual hallucinations produced by venom, techniques of camouflage in the animal kingdom, and the snake’s vision. Like a mirage, these strange half-reptilian, half-vegetal sculptures attract visitors by the light that reflects on their surface in the day and which emerges from within by night. By invoking the figure of the snake, Dana-Fiona Armour echoes the numerous cosmogonies in which the creature steals the sun or the moon.

She goes beyond these preconceptions, and, in a scientific approach, uses the fang to highlight the snake’s venom and its effects on the human body: at once a death threat and a cure, if used wisely.

Solenoglyphous C.C, 2023 © Dana-Fiona Armour
Commissioned by RCRC and Riyadh Art