We are thrilled to announce our first participation in the MIA Photo Fair in Milan. Our booth will showcase works by the Egyptian artists: Sabah Naim, Najla Said, & Ruwan Hamdy.
Sabah Naim
Sabah Naim (b. 1967) is an Egyptian artist based in Cairo, holding a BFA, a MFA, and a Ph.D. from the College of Art Education in Cairo (2003) and presently serving as an Assistant Professor. Her work is characterized by a unique perspective and a distinctive visual language that challenges traditional norms, spanning from the reworking of images to embroidery. Naim employs an array of mediums such as fabrics, newspapers, and threads and she also
incorporates photography, needlework, and hand-painted patterns into her work, transforming simple materials into rich, complex, and yet delicate surfaces.
In this series, Naim investigates Cairo's everyday life through images appropriated either from newspapers or from photographs made by the artist herself throughout the streets of her city. These images were then printed on paper and enriched with symbols pertaining to the culture and decorative arts of the Middle East, urban architecture, the labyrinth of the casbahs, and the arabesques of the moldings that decorate the mosques. In her works, the object of investigation is undoubtedly the alternation between silence and dialogue, the exchange between narrated image and effaced image. Naim manages to capture significant moments of the stream of life around her by focusing on the sacred quality of a moment stolen from consciousness and underlines how valuable this moment is through the juxtaposition of the image with its negative counterpart.
Sabah Naim
Sabah Naim (b. 1967) is an Egyptian artist based in Cairo, holding a BFA, a MFA, and a Ph.D. from the College of Art Education in Cairo (2003) and presently serving as an Assistant Professor. Her work is characterized by a unique perspective and a distinctive visual language that challenges traditional norms, spanning from the reworking of images to embroidery. Naim employs an array of mediums such as fabrics, newspapers, and threads and she also
incorporates photography, needlework, and hand-painted patterns into her work, transforming simple materials into rich, complex, and yet delicate surfaces.
In this series, Naim investigates Cairo's everyday life through images appropriated either from newspapers or from photographs made by the artist herself throughout the streets of her city. These images were then printed on paper and enriched with symbols pertaining to the culture and decorative arts of the Middle East, urban architecture, the labyrinth of the casbahs, and the arabesques of the moldings that decorate the mosques. In her works, the object of investigation is undoubtedly the alternation between silence and dialogue, the exchange between narrated image and effaced image. Naim manages to capture significant moments of the stream of life around her by focusing on the sacred quality of a moment stolen from consciousness and underlines how valuable this moment is through the juxtaposition of the image with its negative counterpart.
Najla Said
Born in 1999, Najla Said is a photographer. The series Sister, Oh Sister "أختي يا أختي" is a photographic series exploring a first-person account of the experience of womanhood in Cairo. The series recontextualizes extracted elements within the Egyptian vernacular culture, in order to create alternative representations of womanhood. Each photograph questions the validity of the components of “so-called” femininity, which are inevitably reinforced by the subconscious, established, quasi-dictatorial patriarchal norms. From the personified role hair plays in Arab communities, as a means to govern feminine comportment and belittle the essence of womanhood, to the consumption of the female body by the gaze, as well as to the empowerment sisterhood can offer as a safe space for women to exist. "Sister, Oh Sister" intends to provoke the categories Arab women have been limited to painfully squeezing in, and create a decolonized space for self-representation, self-definition, and self-validation.
Born in 1999, Najla Said is a photographer. The series Sister, Oh Sister "أختي يا أختي" is a photographic series exploring a first-person account of the experience of womanhood in Cairo. The series recontextualizes extracted elements within the Egyptian vernacular culture, in order to create alternative representations of womanhood. Each photograph questions the validity of the components of “so-called” femininity, which are inevitably reinforced by the subconscious, established, quasi-dictatorial patriarchal norms. From the personified role hair plays in Arab communities, as a means to govern feminine comportment and belittle the essence of womanhood, to the consumption of the female body by the gaze, as well as to the empowerment sisterhood can offer as a safe space for women to exist. "Sister, Oh Sister" intends to provoke the categories Arab women have been limited to painfully squeezing in, and create a decolonized space for self-representation, self-definition, and self-validation.
Ruwan Hamdy
Ruwan Hamdy (b. 1995) is an architect and interdisciplinary artist based in Alexandria. She mainly works with photography as a medium and likes to apply a variety of experimental approaches in her work (mixed media, audio, visual, AR, & installations). She is interested in the broad intersection between architecture, art, and design.
Stigma, as Goffman described it, is the process where the reaction of others spoils the identity of the self and leaves the person feeling tainted and out of place. This project explores how differently men and women perceive social stigma in our community and how it affects their self-image in the process. Stigma goes beyond the community, society standards and straight through self-concept. In this project, she tries to confront some social norms and stereotypes that present in our society, by creating a visual conversation between the male and female gaze on social stigma and most importantly, create an image to recognize the effect of stigma on one’s self.
Ruwan Hamdy (b. 1995) is an architect and interdisciplinary artist based in Alexandria. She mainly works with photography as a medium and likes to apply a variety of experimental approaches in her work (mixed media, audio, visual, AR, & installations). She is interested in the broad intersection between architecture, art, and design.
Stigma, as Goffman described it, is the process where the reaction of others spoils the identity of the self and leaves the person feeling tainted and out of place. This project explores how differently men and women perceive social stigma in our community and how it affects their self-image in the process. Stigma goes beyond the community, society standards and straight through self-concept. In this project, she tries to confront some social norms and stereotypes that present in our society, by creating a visual conversation between the male and female gaze on social stigma and most importantly, create an image to recognize the effect of stigma on one’s self.