Sarah Sze discusses the Tomb of Perneb in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of Phaidon’s The Artist Project

The artist finds unlikely parallels between the Tomb of Perneb and the grave-like aspect of her own work

Why does the ancient Egyptian Tomb of Perneb, dating from around 2300 BC, remind the contemporary artist Sarah Sze of an Excel spreadsheet?  

The tomb, which was purchased from the Egyptian government in the early 20th century and has been on display at the Metropolitan Museum ever since, is the kind of formal grave that Egyptologists call a mastaba. These stone buildings house rooms where "life-renewing rituals" were performed, according to our new book The Artist Project, wherein today's artists pick an inspirational work from the Met's permanent collection. 

Sze settled on the Tomb of Perneb because she sees some parallels between the artefact and her own, reified, heterogenous installations.

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Image: Sarah Sze beside the Tomb of Perneb at the Metropolitan Museum. Photo by Jackie Neale/Kathryn Hurni © The Met