With the ant being his mascot, or logo, Keizer’s large body of work includes thematic content that ranges from political and social issues to abstract forms, as well as urban manipulations.
At the beginning there was an ant. The ant crawled onto the wall of an abandoned, half-damaged kiosk in the Cairo neighbourhood of Dokki; it started examining the passers-by as they rushed to their destinations. Everyone seemed busy – men, women and children – as they moved in a predefined direction, at a precise pace. The ant understood that in this socially organised whole, everyone had a role to fulfill, everyone knew how to channel their energy as they were reduced to functions and numbers, carrying the illusion of an identity that they would gradually be stripped of.
The people who thus turned into a colony continued to move swiftly before the ant, reminding it of its own species: workers, soldiers and queens. As the ant watched the growing formicary and pondered the destiny of each passer-by emerging from it, autumn winds started speaking of social mobilisation. Then came the January 2011 Revolution. While the colony called for the fall of the regime in millions, the ant started multiplying. The voices in the city amplified, and more ants spread to more walls, bringing with them the word “Keizer” – an alternative signature of the prime-ant creator.
View here.
At the beginning there was an ant. The ant crawled onto the wall of an abandoned, half-damaged kiosk in the Cairo neighbourhood of Dokki; it started examining the passers-by as they rushed to their destinations. Everyone seemed busy – men, women and children – as they moved in a predefined direction, at a precise pace. The ant understood that in this socially organised whole, everyone had a role to fulfill, everyone knew how to channel their energy as they were reduced to functions and numbers, carrying the illusion of an identity that they would gradually be stripped of.
The people who thus turned into a colony continued to move swiftly before the ant, reminding it of its own species: workers, soldiers and queens. As the ant watched the growing formicary and pondered the destiny of each passer-by emerging from it, autumn winds started speaking of social mobilisation. Then came the January 2011 Revolution. While the colony called for the fall of the regime in millions, the ant started multiplying. The voices in the city amplified, and more ants spread to more walls, bringing with them the word “Keizer” – an alternative signature of the prime-ant creator.
View here.
