Meet the regional artists charging for change and diversity in the art and fashion world.
Egyptian artist Beya Khalifa experiments with collages and her artworks feature a stark contrast between kitsch and post neo-colonialism. With no formal training in art, she began experimenting with contemporary collage art and modelled her work on Eugenia Loli before developing her own style.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
From everyday life – a big chunk of my life is based on a very mundane routine and a very reliable and predictable set of variables, so I think it’s a lot of fun to always try to see how you can render the banal and ordinary whimsical and unpredictable. It forces you to look for inspiration everywhere. Then there’s everything that falls outside of your routine – the new things and people you are exposed to from time to time, each being almost a little macrocosm of inspiration. And there are always books, music, movies – art made by people inspired by other people to inspire even more people.
What is the main context to your work?
Having been working on and routinely producing collages for a couple of years now, I’ve noticed that my work is very starkly divided between kitsch and post-/neo-colonialism. I suppose that might be reflective of what I’ve been interested in and actively exploring in the past. In a way, all of the questions I’ve been grappling with and the conclusions I’ve drawn from the framework and context for everything I create.
How does your heritage influence your work?
Even though I’ve lived in Egypt all my life, I had a very westernised education from a really young age, so I’ve been very much in tune with Western art, music, movies, and political & societal discourse all my life. Like many individuals in “developing” countries who grew up imbibed with a convergence of different cultures. I think when you reach a certain age you suddenly realise the stark difference between everything Western you’re being fed and are actively consuming, and the reality of things at home. And I think it’s that difference – trying to reconcile what you’ve been told about your home, your people, your history and what you are only now discovering – that very much defines contemporary art for a lot of young artists nowadays, me included. It’s a way to question and interrogate yourself and the society you grew up in; pushing you to explore the way in which our lens has been influenced and warped. You try to redefine your heritage, in a way. So, I definitely think the fact that I come from a place that’s considered a “developing” country, and is still to this very day struggling with tangible and intangible ramifications of colonization and imperialism, very much influences my work and how I approach it.
What do you love about art?
There’s so much to love! The possibility and potential for anyone to air their grievances or to celebrate victories and make it memorable and compelling enough to be put in a museum. That it’s relatable. That someone across the world can fall in love with something you made. That art doesn’t have to be anything. It doesn’t have to be meaningful, it doesn’t have to be pretty. I love that it’s a mirror for and of the beholder – any meaning or emotion they assign a piece of art can tell you so much about that person, sometimes more so than about the piece itself. I love that art has a dichotomy to it: that of the artist making it and all the emotion they put into it, and the reactions and emotions it elicits from the viewer, and that it’s not necessarily a linear or predictable process.
What messages are you trying to translate through your work?
This question always trumps me a little bit because I don’t think I know the answer to that yet. I am in the process of learning (and unlearning!) so much about my identity, my heritage, and various political, social and cultural issues, that it feels a bit muddled to me. Anything interesting that grabs my attention probably makes its way to my work, subtly or conspicuously. Some concepts so far entail parallel universes, the human condition as related to nature, sexism and misogyny, colonialism, etc. And they would always come at a time when prodded or elicited through conversations with people, or interesting books, or through other artists.
Media: Supplied
