Video: Alone in the Field: Belhoula Amir Illustrates Loneliness
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
We do not know anything about the private life of the French illustrator Belhoula Amir, but the works posted on his page on the Behance website suggest with a high degree of probability that the feeling of loneliness is familiar to him firsthand.
The artist dedicated several cycles of illustrations to this state: "Alone" ("Alone"), "Alone II" ("Alone II"), "Alone in the night" and "Lonely God" (" A lonely god "). The illustrations of different series slightly differ from each other in plots and technique of execution, but they are united by a common theme, put in the titles.
Another common feature is the deliberate "emptiness" of the composition. The background, filled with a uniform and unobtrusive texture, uncompromisingly takes up most of the image, leaving the character only a tiny island of space and creating a pronounced sense of isolation. It is not so important where the little man is: on a field, in a house or in a pond, no matter what scene Amir portrays, he inevitably makes the viewer think that people are by nature alone, and, in a broader sense, that a person is nothing more than a tiny dot on the immense map of the universe.
In modern Western culture, heavily influenced by undivided Hollywood optimism, collectivism and, in general, the process of globalization, loneliness is by default considered an unnatural and harmful condition, and should be pitying or censure, depending on the context. Therefore, it is especially interesting that each specific loneliness in the works of Amir has its own special character.
Yes, some of his characters would probably prefer to be surrounded by friends or alone with a loved one. But for others, loneliness is a conscious choice or even an urgent need. Indeed, by and large, loneliness is nothing more than the absence of other people in the wide color field of the illustration, and the right to interpret facts and experience emotions always remains with the viewer.
Amir's illustrations are reminiscent of the “Face in the Crowd” series of photographs by Alex Praiger - another visual reflection on the theme of loneliness. But, if Praiger collects as many different faces as possible in one frame, then Amir does the opposite. Even the main (and only) characters in his illustrations are often devoid of faces.
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