Eyes Shut

Photorealistic embroidery with amazing face details made with over 3 million stitches.

The skin complexion of the depicted protagonist is perfectly rendered in an almost monochrome palette of threads.

About motif

A Somali man at a refugee camp in Dadaab. From the neighbouring country of Somalia an estimated 8000 refugees cross the border each month to escape the desperate living conditions.

In North-Eastern Kenya a humanitarian disaster is taking place. There is one road heading west from the border and within 100 kilometres that road reaches the town of Dadaab.

Refugees want to enter the world’s largest refugee camp. In a 50 square kilometre area around Dadaab three separate settlements house at least 290,000 people, but there is no space, finance or manpower for the newcomers. To help this constant wave of people, and internal politics in Kenya also hamper decision-making. Living in improvised huts, without medical treatment, they try to stay alive.

Photo series Eyes Shut, symbolically depicts how the West shuts their eyes from the hardships of the refugees.

Deep zoom of the artwork

https://www.ercigojart.com/gallery/eyes-shut/

Artwork info

Motif: by Chris de Bode
Type: Photo embroidery
Technique: Ercigoj stitch
Year: 2016 — ongoing
Edition: Limited (5)

Dimension: 100 x 100 cm | 39.4 x 39.4 in
Number of stitches: over 3.3 mio
Thread length: over 39 km | over 24.2 mi
Development: over 700 person hours

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