{"product_id":"old-as-stone-hard-as-rock","title":"Old as Stone, Hard as Rock","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom acclaimed Italian artist Alessandro Sanna, a sweeping history of war and humanity as told wordlessly through paintings—tracing both human destruction and creation through the ages, as witnessed and recorded by stone\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A stone falls to the Earth. It picks up speed, rolling down the steep side of a mountain, until it comes to rest in an\u003cbr\u003e empty plain. But the plain won’t remain empty for long: out of the shadows emerge two figures, who immediately start\u003cbr\u003e to grapple, using that very stone as a weapon, to kill.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But those same hands, our human hands, holding the same weight of stone, also shape and forge, chisel and build,\u003cbr\u003e creating as they destroy, rendering beauty and violence alike. What is the relationship of those twin impulses?\u003cbr\u003e In these pages, artist Alessandaro Sanna uses the shaping force of his hands to explore the seemingly endless,\u003cbr\u003e perversely steadfast human capacity for destruction. Unflinchingly tracing humanity’s long history of war, from the\u003cbr\u003e havoc of armies on horseback, to the violence of the conquistadores, to the carnage of the First World War, to the\u003cbr\u003e ghastly terror of the atomic bomb, and the cruel, shockingly intentional attack on the Twin Towers, Sanna records our\u003cbr\u003e compulsion to destroy. The hands mold clay, streak color across a sky, define a world, give beauty to the eye; and yet\u003cbr\u003e fires burn, an acrid smell arises, smoke blots out the sun. For what and why?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Includes an introduction from esteemed poet \u0026amp; scholar, Ammiel Alcalay, as well as an artist’s note.","brand":"ABRAMS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42664963178532,"sku":"9781592704217","price":49.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0725\/9734\/0196\/files\/9781592704217.jpg?v=1775767831","url":"https:\/\/thamesandhudson.com.au\/products\/old-as-stone-hard-as-rock","provider":"Thames \u0026 Hudson Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}