This month, Cairo’s hottest contemporary arts venue Darb 1718 hosts an exhibition called “Nun by Amr Fekry, one of Egypt’s most celebrated young artists. Like the space, Fekry’s work straddles lines of elegance and timelessness, at once entirely part of and distinct from its surroundings.
Made up of less than 20 photographs and a small video installation, the small show provides only a glimpse into Fekry’s oeuvre; a body of work that grounds itself in still and moving image.
The still images are from two different series. The first are close-up images of the skin of an elephant. Warm and sensual in sepia tones, the photos mostly depict the elephant’s eye, never revealing more than a fraction of the creature’s whole. The second series, of which only two photos are present, consists of images of boys swimming in a frothy waterfall.
Fekry had presented these images before at Makan as a slide show, set to an intense musical soundtrack.
At that time, Fekry offered a more complete picture of his work – both the elephant and boys in water images fell under part of a larger conceptual whole, a photographic series about animal slaughter during the feast. Both light and heavy, full of poetry and corporeality, Fekry’s images of the body, whether they be human or animal, seem to move so close to the flesh as to transcend it entirely.
In seeing the work at Darb 1718, I wasn’t sure if the audience would be able to grasp the cohesive whole. Set under the umbrella of Fekry’s current concept “Nun, the sampling might appear minimal either positively or negatively. Still, the possibility for his singular image to overwhelm is strong simply because as a photographer, Fekry has an exceptional eye.
For the sensitive eye, the power of details in the skin and the concept of the elephant could easily kick start an associative journey. Exotic yet earthly, living yet ancient, massive, kind, and physically compelling, the elephants exceed a superficial reading.
The boys in the water however, are less easily placed. Previously contextualized – in the slide show – within a ritualistic progression of slaughter to cleansing, the boy images now rely on themselves. Their meaning, presented in a pale black and white, remains cryptic, visually far from the elephants.
Three images on view exist outside of these series. Two greet the viewer in a small space at the entrance to the exhibit. Though without rational shape, these abstract photos provide a sense of their own form, like wax dripping from a candle. The third is of a more genius stroke: the close-up image of a wet belly. Also presented in sepia, this solitary photo is hung beside the elephants, giving a strong message of sensuality, physicality, the oneness of all creatures with skin.
The show’s title concept is too broad, possibly vague. “Nun was the god in ancient Egypt who personified the primeval waters, the chaos which existed before there was shape and form, the unformed expanse that has no beginning or end, Fekry’s statement reads. “Following the creation, Nun played a role in the destruction of mankind when humans no longer respected the earth.
Thankfully, Fekry took no turns to depict Pharaonic images. At the same time, the conjuring of primeval waters might not be patently necessary when showing images of boys in a waterfall. The exhibit appears minimal without its lofty concept. At the same time, this may be part of what one must accept to understand the work. “Nun is not bowing to fashion, existing in a realm outside of the contemporary art world’s dictate to “deconstruct, or its prohibitions on depictions of nostalgia or God.
Within Fekry’s new order, the route taken is yet unchartered. A contemporary Egyptian art that aims to include a Pharaonic legacy in more than kitschy representations for tourists is certainly admirable. In this fashion, Fekry is an artist’s artist. If the audience does not already possess an eye for detail, some of his subtlety may be lost.
In the Darb 1718 show however, it appears he is at least in part, successful. The last of the works, an installation of a moving body of water projected over a large box of salt crystals, is mesmerizing. More than a few people present at the exhibition’s opening, sat in silent reverie beside the shallow box, about one meter in length. At once meditative and artistic, here Fekry blends contemporary expression – video and the stark edges of the box – with the “unformed expanse of the sea.
It is at once stirring and stilling.
Beyond that room, the massive elephant, moving like a slow earth, is held in squares within his display. Aspects of the broadest material – the sea, skin, are reduced to sets of small lines and details within Fekry’s gaze. How these details evoke much larger tones, spirituality, embodiment, the flesh, remains part of the beautiful mystery.
