Neither the sky nor the earth

Overview

Fusing various graphic techniques, Abdelkader Benchamma is perhaps best known for his large-scale installations that emerge from a practice grounded in the intimate and intricate exploration of drawing.

Benchamma’s SB13-commissioned installation continues in this vein, creating a new composition that covers all four walls and the ceiling of a room in Al Hamriyah Studios. Investigating the meaning of the archetypal image of the cave, Neither the sky nor the earth (2017) appears to consume the architecture of its own exhibition space. Benchamma’s work, conceived as both a mental and physical space, marks a threshold between the actual walls of the building and the representational space projected by the drawing. Moving between these two spatial dimensions, viewers find themselves disoriented, losing perspective within a composition in which materiality and temporality are continuously in flux.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 13.