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    Sang D’Encre By Ismaïl Bahri, 2009

    “The wrinkles of the skin form lines and tiny networks that make their profound and subtle lineaments appear when they are watered with ink. In Sang d’encre, I drop ink in the pores with a nib and draw as if I was sowing. The layout appears by capillarity and requires a subtle dosage : by small doses, the ink infiltrates the pores to form small networks, a swarming halo suggesting organic or celestial landscapes. When the drawing is done, I take a picture of it.
    It is hard not to think about henna or a decorative mark on the body. But it is not a matter of ornament. Sang d’encre evokes a caress by the contact of the nib on the skin and the closer look on these bodies. The people pictured are my parents, who become ephemeral supports for my drawings, models at which I gaze tenderly.
    But in this series, the caressing is tainted with a « worrying strangeness » (“Inquiétante étrangeté”). The act of drawing hesitates between caress and sting, insemination and contamination, sweetness and pain.
    An inked blood comes up to the bodies. The dissemination of the ink suggests the nightfall. Its crack makes visible the progressive decline of the organisms, as a premonition of the imminent drowsiness of the bodies.”
    — Ismaïl Bahri

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