Une profondeur de ciel et de chemins

Massinissa Selmani’s three subtle and immaculate pencil drawings are grouped under a single title, "Une profondeur de ciel et de chemins" (A depth of sky and of roads). They share certain characteristics: strange architectural structures are seen in perspective, precisely drawn but floating ambiguously in space, without points of reference or scale. A common theme of obstruction and control is suggested by impassable paths and broken bridges. Selmani’s metonymic use of imagery – a rock standing for the earth, a rectangle of grass for territory, a flag for nationhood, a cloud for freedom – gives the drawings wide political and metaphysical implications.

In the first of the series, N1, two truncated footbridges extend over a shadowy wall; on each is placed a fruit, a pear and an orange, which contradicts the scale of the structure implied by the handrail. They could symbolise unattainable pleasures, as they are positioned on the far side of the wall, where a blank flag signifies a territorial demarcation. Below to the right, all four directions of the compass point to the north.

Pairing or mirroring is a feature in all three drawings. In N2, a pair of rectangular grassy planes are tilted upwards and intersected by a thin near-transparent vertical sheet or wall. Behind them a wind turbine seems awkwardly to interact with passing clouds. At the base of the two planes are a wrapped form tied with ropes and staked to the ground, and a portion of a sloping bridge that hovers interrupted above the grassy slope.

In the third drawing, N3, those two rectangular patches of grass are laid flat, at each end of a footbridge bisected by a semi-transparent barrier, perhaps a sheet of glass. At the far side is a flag - again blank - and above floats a cloud. On the near side the form of a solid arc curves above a rock, drawn only in outline although casting a shadow.

Roger Malbert