| Our former prez becomes the latest pop art icon By May El Khishen |
| When word got out that a new art exhibition was being dedicated to former President Hosni Mubarak — I still can’t get over using the word ‘former’ — one could not help but think, why now? Wasn’t it enough that we had to endure seeing his face on every public office building and government institute wall for the past 30 years?Despite the initial dislike of the idea of a gallery filled with only portraits of Mubarak, the exhibition quickly became the talk of the town and the international art scene as well, with mentions in the New York Times and on The Guardian Culture Center website. The publicity the exhibition garnered was not only because of its subject matter but because of the great artwork showcased. The Man Behind the Brush Created by advertising guru and budding contemporary visual artist Ali Ali (the brains behind the Sprite 2009 campaign), the exhibition Thirty Hosnis was in the making long before the January 25 Revolution erupted. Even though Ali has been playing with the idea of dedicating an art collection to Mubarak’s image, it was the revolution ousting the president that made it possible for Ali to showcase his exhibition. “Mubarak’s image is quite iconic. He is not generic. He is not a face you forget; his pose, his clothes, his sunglasses. I always thought that his image had an aesthetic value in it, but it was never explored — for obvious reasons of course,” says Ali. Ali actually has always had a framed picture of Hosni Mubarak in his office, and he explains, “People always laugh when they find it on my desk.” The idea of turning Mubarak’s image into art had been brewing for three years, so when Mubarak stepped down, it was the first thing Ali thought of doing. “Three years ago, I started by doing some paintings; paintings that don’t glorify him. I wanted to show them in a gallery Downtown, but I don’t want to say its name,” says Ali. “The gallery loved the work, but were afraid to showcase it, which is very understandable.” From Marilyn and Mao to Mubarak After taking two months off to focus solely on his exhibition, Ali’s avant-garde debut collection was finally ready for a public viewing. It is comprised of 30 different portraits of Mubarak, one for each year the ousted president ruled Egypt. “I was worried that people wouldn’t get the idea and would think that we are trying to promote him. And actually some people would walk into the gallery and walk out when they saw Thirty Hosnis. They were offended,” says Ali. “But on the other hand, many other people loved the work. The feedback was great and 21 out of 30 paintings were sold.” Inspired by the legendary Andy Warhol’s 1962 series of Marilyn Monroe images and his 1973 Mao Zedong portraits, Ali used a diverse range of vibrant colors such as fiery orange, hot pink and royal blue: all very characteristic of the pop art genre. After rummaging through old copies of the state-owned Al Ahram newspaper, Ali settled on three different photos of Mubarak to manipulate to create his collection. Among the 30 paintings, Mubarak’s face has been paired with repeated patterns of famous fictional characters such as Mickey Mouse, Pac-Man and Darth Vader. In other pieces, the former president is juxtaposed with known brands like Panadol and Raid. “Let me tell you something funny,” Ali reveals. “Panadol actually wanted to sue me for using their product, but they actually cannot do that because I did not use their actual logo, so now they want to buy all the Panadol pieces.” Each of Ali’s paintings scream “super cool.” Even though the idea of using silk screening as an art technique is not new, the subject matter definitely is. Hats off for that. The exhibition was held from May 8 to May 14 in Cairo’s latest culture hub, the Articulate Baboon Gallery in Designopolis. “This exhibition is a way of coming to terms with what happened,” Ali says. “Yes, he is a bad man, but this is unfair to the image. It is like paying tribute to the image and not the man. Taking Warhol’s Mao, it is a great piece of art, but Mao was not a good man. I was trying to separate the image from the personality.” Watch out Monroe and Mao, there’s a new pop icon in town. |
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