Sonia Ben Achoura - Fine Art

I created this series during the pandemic. That was a time of unprecedented uncertainty. The world was brought to a standstill for an unknown duration of time, and the death toll increased to incomprehensible levels. People were locked into their homes. Millions of people within their apartments, millions of lights illuminating every town and every city, like little boxes, little squares...

Nature experienced a rebirth. The air was clean and room for other species to be. New life emerged during that uncanny spring. Suddenly, there was time to think and time to dream. Maybe life on Earth would change for the better. Millions of moments of realisations happened within the minds of the people. Human obsession with progress and money faded into the background. Maybe their dreams of a change, a realignment with nature would manifest one day... 

Then the murder of George Floyd occured. Hatred unleashed amongst unimaginable suffering, an event that sent shockwaves around the world. A low point for humanity. Thousands took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand justice and equality, risking their own lives. Artists responded in varying ways to those anxious circumstances. Most geometric artists were opting for a more relaxed style to cope with the anxiety of the times, deviating from strict rules or using loose brushstrokes. I seemed to go into the opposite direction. It became apparent that emotions do not manifest in the same way among individual artists. Never before had I painted in such minute detail. In fact I had promised myself early on that I would never be a painter of little squares. Yet the unpredictability of those dark days took over, translating into compulsive precision.

From space, our world must have looked magical. A world illuminated by myriads of lights. A multitude of people of different origins, races, colours confined within their homes, their dreams of a better world floating upwards in millions of colours. Their hopes and wishes of safety, brotherhood and harmony made visible in a joyful chromatic array. They rise and converge, illuminating like never before the darkness of space.