TOKYO-2018

Documenting The Decyphering of The Book of The Dead

  • Photographer
    Tara Cronin
  • Technical Info
    These Photographs Are Documentation Of Various Versions Of The Decipherment Of The Book Of The Dead.
  • Photo Date
    Jan 2018-June 2018

These photographs document the gradual decipherment of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. After studying the hieroglyphics for a previous series, Archetypal Writing, I helped to decipher hieroglyphics. The symbols for hieroglyphics turn out to be a phonetic and symbolic way of spelling out the ancient mandarin language as well as possibly other languages. The words spelled out by the hieroglyphics form a phonetic standpoint are quite clear. However, even after converting the hieroglyphics into the mandarin equivalent, because of the nature of mandarin chinese, being full of puns, is mutable.

Tara Cronin is an artist working in various mediums focusing on alternative photographic methods, works on paper, installation and book-arts. She has pursued an art career that has both helped her solve problems in her own internal space as well as in the space she finds herself situated externally. Tara received a BA in Writing from New School University, and an MFA in Photography from Bard College and the ICP-Bard Program, and has Twice-earned the ICP Director’s Fellowship Award. During her graduate and post-graduate work, Tara explored this interface between the material and the individual