Artist
Jim Sanborn
Title
Babylon IV
Date2011
MediumPaper pulp, aluminum, steel
Dimensions42 × 52 × 3 in. (106.7 × 132.1 × 7.6 cm)
Credit LineDC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank Collection
Object numberDCCAH2012.002
ClassificationsSculpture
Locations
Homeland Security & Emergency Management (1015 Half St, 9th Fl)
DescriptionJim Sanborn created Babylon IV and a related series of artworks from pulped Central Intelligence Agency documents featuring encoded Arabic text. Sanborn carefully researches the texts for his pieces at the Library of Congress, and he intends them to comment on the fragmented view of the past provided by the archeological record, as well as the power of secrecy. This piece relates closely to Sanborn’s well-known 1990 sculpture Kryptos, located at the CIA headquarters in Langley, VA. Only three of the four coded sections of that work have been solved since its installation.
