23 April 2026, Canvas Magazine online

In my latest feature for Canvas Online, I explore “Ghostly Echoes,” an evocative exhibition by Hrair Sarkissian at Ibraaz, London. The exhibition centers on Stolen Past, a series of 48 3D-printed lithophanes that act as a “spectral archive” for the Raqqa Museum in Syria. Between 2013 and 2017, this museum was systematically looted; out of 8,000 recorded artifacts, only 880 remain.

Sarkissian’s work does more than document this loss. By using translucent panels that only reveal their images when illuminated, he forces the viewer to confront the precarious nature of cultural memory. These artifacts—reconstructed from low-resolution mobile phone photos taken by local archaeologists in a race against time—flicker between presence and disappearance, serving as a powerful critique of the illicit antiquities trade and the politics of erasure. “The result is neither replica nor document, but something more unstable… a tombstone-like presence that demands we witness what has been undone.”

I was particularly moved by the tension between the high-tech 3D printing and the 19th-century lithophane technique, creating a dialogue between the past and our digital present.

Read the full review on Canvas Online →