Ahmed Kassem's paintings emerge as huge board games – as the viewer peers into each one to decipher their rules and icons, they become a player. His new exhibition, Politica, does not merely tackle the January 25 Revolution; he attempts to portray the struggles faced by Egyptians for decades. Kassem believes Egyptians have been living in revolutionary times all their lives: “People have always been unsatisfied; revolting inside, but their voice was not heard.” At a glance, Kassem's artwork appears to be a map to nowhere. A map that will take you around in circles and leave you dazed and confused. Kassem tries to make sense of the nonsensical world around him and the result is intriguing paintings, sprawling with colour and familiar symbols, such as loaves of bread, coins, Cairo's traffic and others. One panting is constructed like a game of Snakes and Ladders. Kassem includes crowds of protestors, the Facebook icon, Central Security Force officers, TV sets, the KFC logo, and other icons to tell the story of the January 25 Revolution. The composition is random, flexible and chaotic, and he infuses a number of storylines within a network of symbols sprawling across the canvas. It becomes a challenge for you to spot the symbols and try to put them in context. But Kassem doesn't intend for his canvases to be instructive or structured; he orchestrates the paintings loosely, to take you on a journey of discovery and realisation. And since Politica is a twist on the word politics, Kassem suggests that politics is a convoluted matter that nobody can really grasp. And surely enough, he believes that “it's all a big mess.” “We have no idea where the country is going or what our rights are. We are oblivious to politics in our country,” says Kassem. The idea behind the exhibition is that all matters in life resemble a game. Kassem reduces revolutionary and social symbols to board games and webs of symbols. Nostalgic, he remembers a time when he was a child and didn't read much into the form and meaning of games. “We used to go through levels, seeking power, and there'd be a villain we had to beat,” says Kassem. The artist believes that even children's games are never “just a game” – they carry hidden political messages. Kassem depicts highly politicised lives through canvases with intricate details that reel you in. You find it hard to pull away from the game (I mean painting). By inserting female figures into his paintings, Kassem also tackles consumerism and the rise of consumer culture, where the purpose in life becomes the pursuit of the next product. “Addicted to buying products that you don't even need, you lose the point of life,” says Kassem. “The human aspect in our life isn't there anymore.” Kassem makes art spontaneously. In oil paints, he starts drawing lines all over his canvas. The process is fluid, personal and not orchestrated. The artist does not pre-empt his paintings with a sketch. Boldly, he starts working directly on the canvas. He applies layers of paint and experiments with different elements until he is satisfied. “Things just happen when I'm working,” he says. “I try to balance between the aesthetic and the conceptual,” says Kassem. “If the painting is merely conceptual, packed with icons and symbols, you might as well just write it.” And indeed, Kassem's paintings are absorbing and artful, despite their significant conceptual depth. His works are multilayered stories, or snippets of a story we all know well – the ordinary Egyptian's daily struggle. Kassem is not concerned with perfection; his work is fluid and candid. “I scribble, I don't clean up, my lines don't always make sense," he says. "I want you to feel like this painting was not produced by a machine.” The artist intends to leave a human aspect in his paintings, in a world where he believes the human aspect is eroding. In Politica, the contemporary artist presents an artistic satire of modern Egyptian life; a game with no rules, a chaotic array of icons and symbols, as humanity struggles to find meaning and purpose. Politica opened at Safar Khan Art Gallery on Wednesday 1 February and will run until Friday 24 February 6 Brazil St., Zamalek, Cairo Monday - Saturday, 10am - 1:30pm, and again from 5pm - 9pm http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/34286.aspx
