Hadutta Masriya

Hadutta Masriya, an Egyptian tale, is, as with most tales, a story about people. Ordinary, everyday people caught up in the passage of life, narrated by three accomplished artists.

Expressions and influences overlap and intertwine reflecting lives full of significant and imperceptible changes. Images packed with questions, thoughts and emotions. From pleasure to pain; love to depression. Questions of traditions. Of what was and what remains. References to crises and turning points that test the fabric of society and reveal all in its rifts, folds and wrinkles.

Faces stare back at us sharing what they feel. Apparently locked in their religious and social rituals that repeat themselves forever. Steeped in tradition and technique that offer comfort and nostalgia.

Meanwhile dynamic hordes surge through squares and streets. Are they seething with pent up frustration? Are they ready to shape their own futures, unwitting foot soldiers preparing to change society forever?

Then ironic but no less dramatic, graphic images referencing Western consumerism mix with powerful symbolic statements. Questioning an enduring appetite for foreign values and their apparent influence on the Egyptian psyche.

All three bodies of work play a role in this fascinating narrative. Some marking historic moments. Some preserving what is. And some questioning what might be.