Egyptian Faience: An Alchemy for Afterlife

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of our Egyptology Museum, we have invited contemporary artist Zahed Taj-Eddin to weave his Nu-Shabtis into the timeless narrative of artefacts permanently on display from the Goodison Collection. This new installation forges a poignant dialogue between the craftsmanship of the ancient and modern world.

Shabtis, also known as shawabti or ushabti, are figurines that once filled the tombs of ancient Egypt. In the eyes of the Egyptians, death was not an end but a threshold to another life, an eternal journey where shabtis would serve as tireless companions, performing labours in the afterlife. Even the poor had their humble shabtis, while the wealthy surrounded themselves with multitudes, each figurine arranged in a careful hierarchy. The overseer shabtis, adorned in the garments of the living, like kilts, commanded this army of the dead.

Zahed Taj-Eddin reimagines a world where these tombs are opened in our time, where his Nu-Shabtis awaken to a startling revelation: there is no afterlife, no god of the underworld, no masters to serve, and no tasks to complete. Freed from their ancient purpose, they become beings unbound—free to explore, to question, and to shape their own destinies.

The word ‘Nu’ is infused with a sense of the new and the liberated. These Nu-Shabtis wander through the modern world, some embracing our way of life, delighting in our endless consumption, our gadgets, and our fleeting pleasures. Others find their spirits ignited with rebellion, becoming protestors, freedom fighters, joining humanity’s timeless struggle for liberty.

In their varied responses to the present, they mirror the complexities and contradictions of our world, reflecting both our joys and our disquiet in this modern existence.

In ancient times, shabtis were crafted from an enigmatic material known as ‘Egyptian faience,’ often hailed as the first ‘high-tech’ ceramic. Composed of a fusion of siliceous elements coated in an alkaline glaze, this self-glazing material was both humble and luxurious, standing alongside precious stones like lapis lazuli and turquoise. In his PhD research, Taj-Eddin delved deep into the magic of faience, exploring its luminous quality and alchemical process. To the Egyptians, this brilliant material, called ‘tjehnet,’ (which meant “brilliant” or “dazzling”) symbolized light, life, rebirth and immortality, making it the perfect vessel for amulets and funerary objects, forever linked to the cycles of death and rebirth.