
Nidhal Chamekh Tunisian, b. 1985
38.6h x 31.5w in
This ongoing series of drawings marks the most recent stage in the artist’s practice. Continuing the trajectory of the large-scale project What if Carthage, it returns to the earliest archives that shaped the initial phases of the research. From the outset, three structuring themes emerge: archaeology, colonial modernity, and contemporary migration.
In this series, the artist offers a variation on these foundational concerns. The drawn gestures—especially the choreography of hands—move between constraint and resistance, while faces, through their partial or total absence, create a paradoxical and unsettling presence. Images that might initially appear distant in time or context begin to resonate as they come closer. The graphite, in its volatile and ephemeral nature, acts as a shifting agent, blurring the lines and redrawing the boundaries between the drawings.