![](http://sharjahart.org/images/uploads/site-images/SB8__Facing_Emptiness_Sophie_Elbaz.jpg)
Facing Emptiness, 2006
Sophie Elbaz
Facing Emptiness, 2006
180x120 cm, Kodak metallic paper mounted on aluminium.
courtesy of the artist.
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Sophie Elbaz
Facing Emptiness, 2006
180x120 cm, Kodak metallic paper mounted on aluminium.
courtesy of the artist.
My work talks about the cradle of humanity contaminated, about the African continent as the world’s garbage bin. I use my process to go behind reality in an attempt to reveal what cannot be seen: the endangering of humanity.
The work is articulated around a central piece,a metamorphosis: I Accuse. It shows an African man facing us as he is slowly transformed by his changing environment. He then partly disappears in the fourth image. From one negative, four images have been produced, and the last one will be revealed at the Biennial. Through its own transformation, I Accuse symbolises the progressive contamination of the human race. The series is introduced by Atomic Tree and closes with Facing Emptiness.
Atomic Tree not only symbolises life, but also knowledge, and therefore wisdom. In its introduction, it forces us to wonder: are we using our knowledge properly today?
Facing Emptiness invites us to face our own responsibility considering our future. The image thus reminds us that we still have a choice.
This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 8.
This catalogue accompanied Sharjah Biennial 8, which attempted to renegotiate the relationship between art and ecology into a system of cohabitation.
The second book in the Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change series, documents Sharjah Biennial 8 as it was on view.