The series Where Is Sudan? marks a return to the beginnings of my studies in painting and drawing. In it, I trace, alongside the narrative concerns that frequently recur in my work, other dialogues between these two practices.
The flat painting, without a layered background, turns to a perspective in which only the essential is depicted—as if an element of a landscape had been cut out and isolated, in a kind of super zoom. At its core, I have always worked with collage, even when not executing it literally.
Beyond these more conceptual aspects, the series addresses the extinction of animals, specifically the northern white rhinoceros. Sudan was his name: the last living male of the subspecies. Today, northern white rhinos are functionally extinct, with only two females remaining in the world, Najin and Fatu. Their extinction was primarily driven by illegal hunting, motivated by the high value of their horns.
To approach this subject, I draw on fantastical narratives with a vibrant, dystopian tone, where strange baobabs, displaced fruits, tree-rhinos, and the gunpowder from the weapons that hunted them emerge.
