about the space of half and hour (R. 8:1) 3,

In the series of vertically formatted paintings titled about the space of half an hour, Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu takes a darker, more dramatic turn. Since the mid-2010s, her working method has followed a consistent approach: over a blurred, cropped press photograph transferred onto the canvas, the artist applies a series of graphic marks using a range of tools and techniques—digital retouching, ink and acrylic brushwork, spray paint.

For the third painting in the series, whose title references the biblical episode of the breaking of the seventh seal in the Book of Revelation, Mehretu selected a photograph that has haunted her since June 2017: the deadly fire that engulfed Grenfell Tower in London, trapping residents in the upper floors. Mehretu retains only the “DNA” of the image: the information from the original photograph is no longer legible, but the terror of the fire remains palpable in the burst of light at the center of the canvas, while the grey background echoes the suffocating atmosphere of smoke.

Over this spectral space, yellow, blue, and black marks organize a field of force with strong contrasts of light and shadow, traversed by incisive or, conversely, more blurred graphic notations. Implicitly, the artist invites us to become spectators and witnesses of the dramatic events that define our time. According to Julie Mehretu, the use of an abstract visual language nevertheless opens up a space of possibility—capable of offering the viewer an experience where the effects of the work remain unpredictable.