Year: 2013
Medium: oil, oil pastel, collage on paper
Dimensions: 99.5 x 137.5 cm (39 1/8 x 54 1/8 in.)
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
The terrifying, curse-like figures dismantle the human form and break it into lines and shapes. Stripping away the physical representation, this work depicts the spirit which lingers behind like a residue. White, skeletal faces and horizontal, transparent, husk-like figures. Through gaps in the thickly layered paint in the background, old folk art-esque sculptures and French text emerge, as if pointing to the artist's roots in his homeland. For Aboudia, who survived a brutal civil war, the body is fragile and life is easily lost. What ultimately remain are the spirit and ideas that one passes down to others. Aboudia’s paintings bequeath these to the world, as ineffable curses or blessings.
