Vinyl text: 

HS5 

 Minaret Severed from a 13th century historic structure overlooking the sea 

The International Museum of Ancient Arts and Culture Collection  

Stone 

550 x 230 cm  

A.D. 1230 

Iman Issa’s Heritage Studies #5 (2015) consists of a large aluminium form with tapered ends. The sculpture resists immediate identification, hovering between familiarity and abstraction as its smooth, industrial surface offers only a distant suggestion of an architectural reference. This ambiguity is complicated by the accompanying vinyl text, which frames the object as a ‘Minaret Severed from a 13th-century historic structure overlooking the sea’, complete with institutional language, measurements and a precise historical date. The specificity of the text contrasts with the indeterminate quality of the form, creating a gap between what is seen and what is described. Through this dissonance, Issa draws attention to the authority of institutional narratives and the ways in which meaning is assigned rather than inherent.