2007–2010
Acrylic on canvas
Formats: 60″×36″, 48″×36″, 36″×36″
Installation approx. 40′ × 12′

San Diego Art Institute, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
June 18 – July 18, 2010

This installation brings together a series of paintings inspired by the Pacific Ocean and the deserts surrounding San Diego. The work explores the relationship between human presence and vast, open landscapes, at a time marked by ecological crisis, echoing events such as the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

My connection to these environments is longstanding. I was born in Marseille, on the Mediterranean, and later lived in Dakar, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Saharan desert. In California, I continue to move between ocean and desert, observing how people inhabit these spaces. Figures in the paintings often come from my immediate surroundings—family, everyday encounters—placed within expansive, quiet landscapes.

The title Correspondences and Elevation is borrowed from poems by Charles Baudelaire, first introduced to me in my youth. These texts evoke a deep connection to nature, intertwined with a sense of distance and loss, which resonates with the concerns underlying this work.

The paintings originate from photographs I take and digitally simplify, reducing each scene to its essential elements before translating it into paint. The canvases share a common height but vary in width, allowing them to be arranged in multiple configurations—like stanzas of a poem—adapting to different spaces while maintaining a cohesive visual rhythm.