Provenance: Gallery Specta, 2021.

Exhibition catalouge text by Louise Steiwer: "The painting is based on a private photo showing the French military on an expedition in southern Algeria in the 1960s. The photo that forms the basis of the painting was taken during the French-Algerian War of Independence, where the colonial project in the area was continued. Before the colonization of the area, traditional trade routes went through the Sahara across the continent. When the Europeans arrived, the traditional trade routes into the country were closed down and new routes were established, going from the center of the continent towards the seas, from where the resources could be shipped towards Europe. These new trade routes became the basis of the infrastructure still found in many places on the African continent. The French army began exploring the Sahara as they began to search for oil in the 1960s, and it is also during this period they begin to establish an actual infrastructure through the desert, making transport of oil out to sea possible. The motif has become part of the collective visual culture through advertising. Many expeditions in the Sahara at the time were sponsored by manufacturers of trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles, who used the images to illustrate the quality of the products under extreme climatic conditions. We know the same motive from a race like Paris-Dakar, which runs from the French capital through the former French colonies in North Africa to the capital of Senegal."