Letitia Gallery’s latest exhibition, “Portmanteau,” presents the work of Egyptian artist Ahmed Badry.
Ahmed Badry, the Egyptian artist
Exploring our relationships with familiar objects, questioning their functionality and role in our everyday lives, “Portmanteau” presents a series of drawings and six sculptures, two of which incorporate 3D printed objects and video projection.
“While I was in Switzerland, from 2008 to 2012, the Swiss environment had an impact on my Cairene lifestyle and my relationship to domestic devices,” Badry says. “I observed the many tricks Egyptians adopt to overcome mechanical problems and everyday malfunctions.”
Ahmed Badry’s art work
The title of the series alludes to the composite objects created by Badry that exist solely as symbols of their potential – for example, his sculpture of a battery drill connected to a can opener, viewed as a whole, does not exist in reality. Badry aims to define these objects through naming and assigning function, and in doing so, creates something new.
Ahmed Badry’s art work
“Through collaborations with artists, writers and linguists, I sought to find a name for the objects, to coin neologisms,” Badry adds. “The result was a series of wacky yet plausible definitions.”
The “Portmanteau” exhibition runs until 18 June 2018 at the Letitia Gallery in Hamra.
Text: Maghie Ghali
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