Untitled snake oil is an installation of different shaped and coloured drinking glasses, placed upside down and adorned with strange, elegant forms. To produce this work, Hany Armanious has cast the negative space within each glass, the space usually reserved for liquids, in a liquid form of petroleum called ‘hotmelt’. The cast space, which has become solid emptiness, is placed on top of each inverted glass. The glass therefore becomes a tiny pedestal for each mould, a clever play on the traditional sculpture and plinth.

By altering the physical presentation of a found object, Armanious transforms the everyday and by placing the work within a glass display case the work takes on a rare and precious quality. The banal form and function of the drinking glass and the formless quality of liquid petroleum are transformed into a sculptural presence. Armanious is obsessed with the magical properties of the casting process and many of his works deal with the alchemical transformation of one substance into another via what the artist describes as the ‘cult of casting’.