ROCK TATTOOS
ANDALUSIA, PROVINZ CADIZ, 2021
The Andalusian landscape burns itself irrevocably into the memory with its heat, rugged mountain formations, vultures, goats and horses, and above all the Atlantic Ocean that connects Africa with Europe.
This was also appreciated by the Phoenicians who sailed here around 1500 BC and traded jewelry, fabrics for copper and gold with the locals. Many hidden rock tombs, carved to bury their dead, still give evidence of this today.
But the Phoenicians developed other treasures: a form of writing that was the first language to represent an alphabet and from whose letters developed the Greek, Arabic and Latin scripts. But the characters of the Phoenician alphabet are more than part of a system of letters, they have a symbolic character, i.e. they stand for concrete concepts such as house, water, fish or bull.
This landscape and the script, forgotten by many, combine with great force in Andalusia, especially when looking from today's Spain to Africa. From Tarifa you can see the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, today just a dramatic scene of modern migration. Again, it is people who, like the Phoenicians, are looking for a new home.
The idea to tattoo a rock with Phoenician writings is simple. You need a cordless angel grinder, a chisel, hammer, cement and glass. Stone and glass have understood each other perfectly for thousands of years. The glass used comes from Venice, also a symbolic place of global exchange and trade. It is a very special material from the ORSONI manufactory, handmade in about 3500 colors, including real gold. Glass mosaic in Byzantine tradition. Fused, colored and eternally luminous.
Making of a rock tattoo
Content from Youtube can't be displayed due to your current cookie settings. To show this content, please click "Consent & Show" to confirm that necessary data will be transferred to Youtube to enable this service. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy. Changed your mind? You can revoke your consent at any time via your cookie settings.
SAMECH - fish
glass mosaic on stone
Samech is a consonant that probably derives from the porting pillar or (vertebral) column or fish. in Greek it became the letter Xi and Chi. Latin equivalent: X
CHET - House,
Fence, Courtyard
glassmosaic on stone
MEM - Water
glass mosaic on stone
Mem is a consonant derived from the representation of a water line, it became in Greek the letter My. Latin equivalent: M
MEM - Water
glass mosaic on stone
Mem is a consonant derived from the representation of a water line, it became in Greek the letter My. Latin equivalent: M
The tools
The rock bed for the mosaic
CHET - House, Fence
ALEPH - Taurus
glass mosaic on stone
Aleph is a Semitic guttural, a glottal stop as in German edit between e and a, which do not form a diphtong here; only in the Greek alphabet did the character become the vowel a, alpha. The letter derives from the stylized representation of a bulls head. latin: A
ALEPH - Taurus
The Material
Fish by the ocean
MEM - Water
MEM - Water
glass mosaic on stone
Mem is a consonant derived from the representation of a water line, it became in Greek the letter My. Latin equivalent: M
CHET - House, Fence,Courtyard
glassmosaic on stone
Chet is a semetic guttural. The letter derives from the representation of a wall, fence or House, respectively. In Greek it became the letter Eta. Latin equivalent. H
The Phoenician alphabet
SAMECH - Food for thought
CHET - House
ALEPH -Taurus
glass mosaic on stone