"Night" was created after I returned from a trip to Iceland where I saw a whale breaching in the moonlight.
I was staying in a house on top of a hill overlooking a fjord in the Northern part of Iceland. I woke up around 4 am. I went outside and saw, in the fjord down below, a whale repeatedely jumping in the ice-cold waters. Jump after jump, like a pure expression of joy, a pure enjoyment of life under the stars, she was all alone in the great expanse of black waters, and I was on the hill watching her.
Photo taken by Arnaud Farré, Globice team member, La Réunion, July 2022
During their long migrations, whales don't stop swimming at night. Instead, only half of their brain goes to sleep while the other half remains awake.
They travel along extremely precise trajectories which remain unchanged year after year. Scientists are trying to understand how they might orient themselves by the position of the Moon and along magnetic lines running along the surface of the Earth.
But this travel process is still a mystery to us.
Whale Fluke (Night), detail
Whale Fluke (Night), installation view, Silas Von Morisse Gallery, NY, NY, 2018