The 3D object shown is part of the works which is an installation composed of:
Archival inkjet print
7 hand-painted resin/bone casts of 3D-model skull – shown above
milled relief on aluminium plate; single-channel video
185 x 85 cm; 26 x 6 x 5 cm each; 125 x 230 x 0.6 cm; 9 hours

Partially commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation
Sharjah Art Foundation Collection

Hrair Sarkissian uses large-format photography to narrate stories that official records do not reveal. Final Flight (2018–2019) focuses on the multiple lives of the Northern Bald Ibis. This majestic bird, which descended from those depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs created millennia ago, was declared extinct in 1989, until a surviving colony of seven was discovered in 2002 in Palmyra, Syria, only to become extinct again in 2014 when Palmyra was brought to its knees in the nation’s ongoing civil war. Sarkissian’s installation centres on seven bone casts of a 3D model skull of an Andalusian specimen poised on elegant plinths and positioned in a line. They point to a video of satellite footage that re-creates the migratory flight routes the Ibis were believed to have taken in their lifetime.