Steve Sabella

Sotheby’s is delighted to offer No Man’s Land by Berlin based artist Steve Sabella as part of an innovative initiative for the benefit of the Palestinian Museum, non-governmental association.

Steve Sabella uses photography as his primary mode of expression. He is known for his imaginative use of the medium and painterly photographic collages. Sabella’s award-winning memoir The Parachute Paradox (Kerber Verlag, 2016) follows his upbringing in Jerusalem. A clear reflection on concepts of homeland (both physical and perceived/psychological), it is a poignant narrative that transcends a one-dimensional commentary on subsequent, physical rootlessness. His words hope for a human condition that transcends culture and nationality – he calls for a bond and affinity to global citizenship.

No Man’s Land is a surreal triptych of three collages composed from images of Lake Victoria Park in London. Elements from the everyday environment – rotting leaves, feathers, pollen dust – are caught in sharp detail, transformed in the blending process. The lake’s surface appears instead like the darkness of space, with interminable depth, a topographic map, or a microscopic view of the ocean floor. In turn, these works ask us to imagine our surrounding anew, and see even a mere speck of dust as representative of all the unknowns and mysteries the universe has to offer.

Steve Sabella has generously gifted this triptych to the Palestinian Museum-Non-Governmental Association, Birzeit following his inclusion in the group show Intimate Terrains: Representations of a Disappearing Landscape at the Museum in 2019. Sotheby's is honored to present this lot in our sale to benefit the Museum's Education Programme.