Desert Breath

Back in 1995 three people – Danae Stratou, Alexandra Stratou and Strella Constantinides – got together and created a piece of art in the Sahara Desert in Egypt. According to them, the desert is a place where one experiences infinity and that they were addressing the desert as a state of mind, a landscape of the mind. Those not inclined to look too deeply into the philosophical interpretations can still marvel at the work in making a beautiful piece of installation art.

The work is called Desert Breath and it was completed in 1997. It consists of 89 protruding cones of gradually increasing size set in a spiral and another 89 depressed (incised) cones also set in spirals. The sand dug out from the depressed cones was used to create the protruding cones. According to its creators, it creates precise positive and negative conical volumes. At the centre of the art piece used to be a body of water 30 metres in diameter but this has now evaporated. The artwork is subject to natural erosion and in due course the area will revert to original desert. 

Creating Desert Breath:

The finished work:

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