S t e v e S A B E L L A
|
In Exile artwork (2008) was about the state of mind of living in permanent mental exile. It was about fragmentation, disorientation, confusion and dislocation. Sabella tries to give a visual form to his life as exile & alienation are at the core of his life and accordingly his art. It seems that Sabella has managed to slowly GLUE his fragments so that they appear complete in a healthier way. Before, they were torn apart in every direction, where now they make some form of a unity. Hence, 'he is more stable'. He writes: I think at this stage of my life, I managed to transcend this state of mind. Just like my journey to penetrate my psyche to give a visual form to my fragmented state of mind for the IN EXILE artwork & others, it occurred to me that I should journey to the beautiful side of my brain and unlock the aesthetic and beauty buried there and give these a visual form. I feel I am IN TRANSITION - in a new state of mind - euphoria |
|
i n t r a n s i t i o n 2010 THIS WORKS IN CONJUNCTION WITH EUPHORIA |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
   |
||
Photos from the Exhibition Euphoria & Beyond at the Empty Quarter Gallery in Dubai. click here for more details |
||
| RELATED REVIEWS | ||
The Empty Quarter Gallery In contrast, the Euphoria triptych is a joyous retinal explosion. Cut and assembled from hundreds of fragments of trees, like those shown In Transition, the resulting photomontages of organic fluidity emanate cathartic relief and a transcendence of the state of ‘mental exile. |
||
Euphoria and Beyond The series “In Transition” relates to early phases of this new state of mind, one of greater lightness, filled with the effort to “unlock the aesthetic and beauty” buried in the artist’s brain. Light shines through the branches of trees, caught in floating movements, ephemeral and fragile like the first rays of morning light after a long and dark night. Here, a cautious hope enters Sabella’s universe, a hope that gains in momentum in “Euphoria”, a triptych celebrating the euphoric deliverance from the mental bonds of anxiety in what might be called a “mental heterotopia” |
||
Steve Sabella: In Exile "...These contorted passageways through his own psyche led the artist to the roots of his wounds and gave him an inkling of the possibility of healing. While the destructiveness of being uprooted was at the center of In Exile, Sabella’s newest works move, release and liberation into the foreground. Euphoria (2010) alludes to the blissful feeling of being freed of mental fetters. This feeling – possibly short-lived, as the artist himself concedes – is expressed in playful-seeming, uprooted trees..." |
||