2016-2018
Courtesy of Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid
The Elephant (an Intermission) addresses the fragmentation of truth in an era of pervasive image culture, where digital media and algorithm-driven content distort perception. Inspired by the parable of the blind men and the elephant, the work reflects on reality as a series of disjointed fragments, manipulated to shape beliefs and political sentiment.
Through thirty-one monochromatic paintings of an inverted elephant (Deaf Feet – December 1–31) and a composite porcelain sculpture, the project questions perception’s reliability and the frailty of individual perspectives. Invoking the Gestalt principle of Prägnanz, The Elephant (an Intermission) challenges the illusion of certainty in a world saturated with selective, ideologically-driven imagery, using art as a critical lens on the complex interplay between reality and representation.
2017
Lead-based oil on canvas.
58” x 50”
Palimpsest (2017) examines the erosion of history and fragility of memory through a series of five progressively abstracted paintings. Beginning with a detailed image of Mount Rushmore before its transformation into a national monument, each successive canvas references its predecessor, gradually losing detail and shifting into abstraction. This recursive fading evokes the concept of a “palimpsest,” where traces of previous forms linger beneath new layers, critiquing how history is mediated, layered, and often erased through repetition.
In revealing how details vanish over successive reproductions, the series reflects on the complex processes of cultural amnesia, asking us to consider what is lost and what faintly remains within the layered inscriptions of time.
Detail of the initial painting
Oil on canvas
4” x 6”
December 26, 2017
Lead-based oil on board
16” x 20”
Courtesy of Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid
December 1 - December 31, 2017
Lead-based oil on board
16” x 20”
Deaf Feet (December 1–31, 2017) examines repetition, vulnerability, and mediated perception through thirty-one black-and-white paintings of an inverted elephant, each created daily over December 2017. Arranged as a calendar or sometimes in a continuous line, each panel disrupts familiar visual cues, emphasizing raw form over recognizable shape.
The inversion of the elephant—a creature that senses danger through vibrations in the ground—symbolically removes its sensory awareness, rendering it “deaf” to potential threats. This gesture underscores the fragility of perception and the disorientation when perspectives are upended. Deaf Feet prompts reflection on the reliability of sight in an age of mediated images, encouraging a deeper consideration of clarity and truth in a world prone to distortion.
December 1 - December 31, 2017
Lead-based oil on board
16” x 20”
Installation view
2019
porcelain
22” x 10” x 14”
Edition 1/6
Inspired by Rumi’s The Elephant in the Dark, this work examines the epistemological limits of perception in the context of contemporary media and fragmented truth. Rumi’s parable, where each blind man’s isolated experience of the elephant yields only partial understanding, is materialized here as a sculpture that combines elements of a snake, fan, tree, and wall—embodying the dissonance between fractured perspectives and an elusive unified truth.
The sculpture invites viewers to critically examine how understanding is shaped by personal biases and external forces that fragment and distort. By highlighting the limitations of individual perception amid curated information, The Elephant (in the Dark) underscores the vulnerability of truth in an era dominated by selective representation and ideological influence, urging viewers to question the sources and structures that mediate and often control their understanding of the world.
Installation view