This is a distillation of Green’s experiences in Chicago on the night Obama was elected President. He was embracing a new beginning, but it was also a moment of sacrifice as he prepares to become the most powerful man in the world. It was important to Green that this part of the cycle was not an image of triumph or a happy ending. It does not signal completion of anything – this is the beginning of a long road.
In Sacrifice Embrace, Night we see the figure separated into three parts, reduced and divided yet still whole. The abstraction of form is dramatic, but is still recognisably Obama.

The blue used in these works went through many iterations, the artist was transfixed with finding the elusive colour of sky and water, to evoke depth and retain transparency. Sacrifice Embrace, Night is the colour of the deep unknowable blue of night time, Inspired partly by James McBride’s The Colour of Water.