Between Sunrise and Sunset, a 128-sculpture installation by Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim debuted on Wednesday at the Venice Biennale’s National Pavilion UAE. The tree-like sculptures closest to the opening are arranged in a thick column in the vast Arsenale room and are in vibrant colors of greens, pinks, blues, and yellows. As one travels towards the back of the room, the colors change, with beiges and taupes taking the place of previously vibrant tints, until the palette has completely altered into a bleak landscape of blacks and whites.
The piece, as well as the performative walk around it, has an effect on how the transition from day to night is seen by the eye: from the dazzling colors that can be perceived in full sun to the dark colors that can be perceived at night.
The piece is inspired by various strands that the Emirati artist has long investigated, but most notably by one subject: Khor Fakkan. Ibrahim’s early works, dating back to the 1990s, were land art or direct intrusions onto the stony faces of the Khor Fakkan mountains. He brings the way light works from his home to Venice for his representation of the UAE.
According to Ibrahim, the mountains of Khor Fakkan hide the sun for roughly two hours before it sets beyond the horizon. This interstitial period results in two hours of low light, during which the eye can only distinguish traces of color and has not yet entirely transitioned to blacks, whites, and grays. With its languorous music, Between Sunrise and Sunset animates this strangely sluggish journey.
On average, the sculptures are 1.5 meters tall and stand on a platform that is slightly raised away from the viewer. They are formed of papier-mache and appear to be painted, but their color comes from the paper used to make them, thus the colors are created as a part of the work itself and permeated into their existence. He integrated daily, organic material from around him — leaves from trees in his Khor Fakkan garden, tobacco, tea, coffee, and even the cardboard wrapping from toys, which his grandchildren would collect and present to him — and blended the colored sheaves of paper like a painter combines paint..
