Gallery Isabelle:
Abdelkader Benchamma, Trees, Ashes, 2023 Ink and acrylic on paper 114 x 150.5 cm
In light of Abdelkader Benchamma’s recent nomination for the 2024 Prix Marcel Duchamp, we would like to highlight his work Trees – Ashes (2023), which is an example of his series Book of Miracles – Vanishing Trees. We are incredibly excited to have received this work for our artist Abdelkader Benchamma, who we have been showing in this region since 2012.
Benchamma’s Book of Miracles series assumes the form of highly detailed drawings, reflecting on the challenges of a process with one overarching constraint: creating a colourful drawing utilising only black or dark tones.
Benchamma takes cues from the 17th century Book of Miracles, delving into mythologies and cosmic observations. Conjuring otherworldly landscapes filled with trees and shrubs, he suggests the cycle of life in transformation, rebirth, and renewal.
He also references hoax modern miracles circulating on the internet. With the use of photo manipulation, visuals from the natural world are reworked by people so to spell the name of Allah or verses from the Quran onto branches or reflected on bodies of water, driven by a need to project spiritual qualities onto nature.
In this particular work, the word ‘Ash-hadu’, as recited in Muslim prayers, simultaneously appears and disappears, and which suggests that the energy of nature is divine.