Anri Sala Untitled (Nepal/Muraena moa, Moringua microchir, Muraenichthys Schultzei), 2023

Ink and pastel on paper (top), vintage hand-colored etching on paper (bottom)
29,6 x 41,8 cm; 30,6 x 46,4 cm (unframed)
43,2 x 55,4 cm; 44,2 x 60 cm (framed)

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This work takes as reference image an engraving of an eel. Sala has taken the map of Nepal and placed it on the page in approximate likeness to the engraving with which the drawing is paired. Although the shape of the country and those of the eel bear no exact relation, a striking formal similarity of form and color manifests itself.

In this series "Untitled (map/species)", Sala reworks maps of countries and geopolitical territories through manual manipulation, skewing and warping representations of land mass so that they fit within the boundaries of the found etchings of biological species with which they are exhibited. As the notion of the frame helped classify and simultaneously seek to constrain their subjects in etchings of the XVIII century, the margins of Sala's map/ species series restrict the geographical representations that they house.