A Case of Sea
2023 (excerpt)
I grew up with the sea in front of my eyes. It was always there wherever I went, a comforting presence in the horizon serenading my every move. But in 2020 I had to leave, and the sea had to stay behind.
Comprising of 280+ cubes to date, each a different instance and photograph of the sea, this project is an attempt at grasping and holding the elusive. It is a compulsive photographic endeavor to record the ever-changing familiar, and a dynamic and permutable installation embracing its restlessness.
Packed into cases of 36 cubes, “a case of sea” draw from a personal childhood puzzle yet renders it impossible to reconstitute a full or complete image. It is part of a bigger scope of work that reflects on the loss of a familiar during turbulent times, and the attempt at reconciling with this loss. The rigid and static aspect of the work opposes its poetic yet futile attempt at keeping within reach what cannot be transported.
The sea, fragmented and prevented from flowing, becomes a territory the moment it manages to draw lines with its shape. From this controling and repressive angle, the work takes on a more political stance.
This work was developed during the 2022-2023 Saradar Foundation art residency in Lebanon. Photographic permutations are a developing part of this work. Through different configurations and methods of patching and assembling the sea together, they become a reflection on notions associated with the sea, such as freedom, liberty, calmness, and others, standing in stark opposition with the rigidity of the confined and restrained cubes of sea.