What Are The Things That Last?
Everything has a code. Most people deal with these objects using the same code or approach. A few [people] approach it differently and create hybrid objects that seem illogical in order to solve a problem, to perform a function.
Ahmed Badry, 2015
The work of Ahmed Badry (b. 1979, Cairo) concerns the relationship between production and consumption, the agency of the consumer, and the construction of alternative narratives. In this frame, are the objects mere inanimate products of the global system? Are they just scattered around the world as passive commodities or can they disrupt the system, invoke a change, and prompt a development? In his practice, Badry reproduces situations that he experienced in reality, uses images from the internet, or his own design. Starting from his personal memory, his inquiring eye looks for simple, common items present in the collective visual memory. He appropriates and recreates neglected objects that are by no means perceived as artistic, and transform them into aesthetic expressions.
[This essay was published as part of the catalogue ‘Ahmed Badry: Portmanteau’; full text available here: http://www.letitiagallerybeirut.com/exhibitions/73/portmanteau]
redbricks 