The Narrative That Makes an Artwork Endure
First Contemplation (2002) marks the initial pulse of a visionary narrative that would later unfold in the forty-six artworks comprising the Series Dream of a Night in Giza, and which would ultimately mature in its literary extension, The Legacy of Neferu. This painting is not merely a beginning; it is the moment a story awakens—where the image and its myth establish a pact of continuity.
In the foreground is Neferu, the young witness and protagonist of this unfolding story. Her nude figure—seen from behind, contemplative rather than exposed—invites the viewer to share her gaze. She sits before a landscape where myth and the future converge on a single horizon. The imposing formation before her corresponds to the primordial mound (“Benben”) of Egyptian cosmogony—the first emergent form from the infinite waters of Nun.
To the right unfolds an otherworldly metropolis: structures of crystalline blue and elevated walkways spiraling upwards. Above, two suns illuminate the sky: a white radiant star and a larger red giant. Their dual presence suggests parallel worlds, cosmic rebirth, and simultaneous time.
Neferu does not merely observe this world; she enters it through contemplation. In this continuity, the artwork reveals its core truth: when a story remains alive across mediums and eras, art becomes myth.