This week you will start to see these little blue figures pop up around The Atkinson! 💙
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.
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.
