Literature

Talal Al Najjar’s new sculptural work, Cacodemonia, connects the realms of mythology, psychology, and digital distortion. The piece, presented alongside an ambient soundscape initially composed for his Petro-Ghareebo, 2022, installation, creates an immersive environment that evokes a deep sense of the uncanny. The term cacodemonia—derived from the ancient Greek word kakodaimon, meaning “evil spirit”—has found its way into modern psychological discourse, where it describes a kind of malevolent insanity. This tension between ancient mythological origins and contemporary psychiatric usage provides the conceptual backdrop for Najjar’s work, which explores the spaces between history, memory, and digital transformation.The sculpture itself stands as a totemic figure, an artefact from a speculative past (or future), combining both physical and virtual histories. Najjar employs a process that begins with the digital scanning of ancient regional artefacts, capturing their textures and surfaces—what he refers to as their ‘skins’. These digital skins are then manipulated, distorted, and layered, creating a new virtual entity. The artist’s method involves printing these configurations and subsequently assembling them into a physical sculpture, thus completing a cycle that shifts between the tangible and the intangible, the ancient and the contemporary. Cacodemonia is not a reinterpretation of the past but an entirely new artefact that reflects on our relationship with historical memory and digital technology. The use of scanned textures from ancient objects invests the work with a sense of authenticity and history, while the manipulation and reconfiguration speak to the distortions of memory and the fragmentary nature of cultural heritage in the digital age. The purple tint that washes over the sculpture adds an otherworldly quality, suggesting an aura of mysticism and echoing the spectral presence of the kakodaimon. The accompanying soundscape serves as a sonic layer that enhances the viewing experience without overpowering it. This aural backdrop, with its low frequencies and atmospheric drones, mirrors the sculpture’s totemic presence, creating a dialogue between sound and form that conjures a space that feels both ancient and futuristic.