Engulfment Stadium #1 situates the abyss within existential void photography—site designed for spectacle emptied of narrative density. Rey transforms stadium into void where figure lingers in suspension without performing. The work contrasts architectural scale with psychological interiority, suggesting identity can dissolve even in hyper-visible environments. Public arena becomes abstract terrain—space without affirmation.
The first encounter I had with the abyss, was arriving to a place that does not exist, a point suspended in time where I am without being. An unreal world expands in front of me, everything here is stripped of identity; it’s a void with volumes and textures in which I transit. The abyss is not aggressive, it is not violent, and it is not tangible, but it exists: “Is the abyss no more than an expedient annihilation? It would not be difficult for me to read the abyss, not as a repose, but as an emotion. I mask my mourning by an evasion; I dilute myself, I swoon in order to escape that density, that clogging which makes me into a responsible subject: I come out: it is ecstasy.”
Existential void photography confronting isolation within monumental public space. From Engulfment. Available at The Art Design Project, Miami Beach.
Existential Void Photography – Engulfment Stadium by Rey
Engulfment, Stadium #1, 2015
From The Series Engulfment
Archival Pigment Print, Color Edition
Limited Edition.
Unframed
Javier Rey is a Colombian artist and photographer. His work has been shown in many collective exhibitions, solo exhibitions, and several international art fairs such as ArtLima (Peru), Scope Art Fair (Miami), and La Feria Del Millón (Colombia). Rey's work has also appeared in books such as "Unlocked", by the Greek collective Atopos, and was chosen as one of the 145 most relevant visual artists and photographers on the web in 2015. His work have been featured in several publications in Colombia, the USA, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Denmark, and other countries.
