Dahlia Elsayed & Andrew Demirjian: SK3000 | March 2024 - May 2024

Locust Projects presents SK3000, a newly commissioned interactive architectural sculptural installation in the 625 sq ft Project Room by New York City-based artists, Dahlia Elsayed & Andrew Demirjian.
A multi-sensory ritual site to quench intellectual and physical thirst, SK3000 reinterprets the iconic Islamic architectural form of a sabil kuttab. Originating in the 1400s, the structure traditionally holds a community fountain at the ground level with a school built on top. The artists reimagine the sabil kuttab’s form and function for the future, in the context of privatization of water sources, democratic access to clean water, and as a learning space that resists education for productivity, profit, or politics.
In the installation, Elsayed & Demirjian use elaborate decoration, including crafted water elements, carpets, cushions, sculptures, and original soundtrack to create a transportive installation conceived of as an ancestral gift structure for an indeterminate future, as a meeting space to collectively imagine new ways of being.
In this speculative future, the artists conjure a world where different species of animals, plant life, fungi, and minerals are able to communicate through a shared non-linguistic form of communicative pulses. Here, within this school that does not privilege Western thought, humans have developed the ability to listen and learn from other lifeforms.
Dahlia Elsayed and Andrew Demirjian’s SK3000 proposal for the Project Room was selected as part of Locust Projects 2022 open call for proposals from more than 350 applications by a review panel consisting of Miami-based independent curator Tam Gryn; and past exhibiting artists, Marcus Kiser 2017 (Charlotte, NC); Jeff Thompson 2020 (Hoboken, NJ; and Raul Romero 2020 (Philadelphia, PA) and coordinated by LP Co-founding artist, Elizabeth Withstandley.
SK3000 is presented, in part, with support from Odabashian Rugs
The exhibition is on view through May 18, 2024, Wednesdays-Saturdays from 11am-5pm.
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Video by Alexa Caravia.
Locust Projects 2023-2024 exhibitions and programming are made possible with support from: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Diane and Robert Moss; The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Children's Trust; State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant; The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation; Diane and Werner Grob; Susan and Richard Arregui; Kirk Foundation; Cowles Charitable Trust, Miami Salon Group, and the Incubator Fund Supporting Sponsors and Friends.