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The first thing that is remarkable about Abdel Mohsen’s work is that all of it is painted on discarded cardboard. Abdel Mohsen paints different scenarios on the pieces, sometimes with one piece showing four different scenes- one on each of the four panels of a cardboard box. As mentioned, a lot of his work shows violence, the most explicit being a piece showing a horse being stabbed in the neck. The white horse sets off against the red background. There might be some reference in this piece to February 2nd 2011, aka the battle of the horses and camels. Another piece shows Cairo’s rooftops with snipers aiming to the streets and ready to shoot. Abdel Mohsen often features figures of people in the pieces, but they are usually faceless.
Animals are also a recurring image. One piece depicts dinosaurs and another shows dog-like human beings ruling over more faceless human figures. There are also some normal, domestic pieces depicting scenes of an ahwa and a market. The Nile is shown in some pieces as being red; possibly a reference to the bloodshed of the past year.
Ali Abdel Mohsen’s pieces are very interesting and carry profound underlying messages that might be difficult to understand and it’s not for the fainthearted. Many artists have chosen to represent the January 25th revolution and the demonstrations through a personal or collective perspective, whether that be one of hope, satire or anger. Abdel
Mohsen has tried to communicate the events as they are. The picture he paints is desolate, bleak and eerie.