Vulture

About the work

Vulture is one of Katia Kameli's ceramic sound sculptures, a bird form modelled in glazed clay and presented on its own plinth. Made for The Canticle of the Birds, the piece gives voice to one of the birds of Farid ud-Din Attar's twelfth-century Persian poem, in which a flock sets out on a perilous journey in search of its king. Sound emanates from within the ceramic body, turning the sculpture into a speaking presence and inviting the viewer to listen as much as look. The work extends Kameli's long engagement with translation and the circulation of stories between cultures.