In progress: Problems and product By Aly El-Guindy Mohamed Abla , artist, was born in Mansoura in 1953. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria. He has held many solo exhibitions, in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland and Sweden, and in Egypt. He received the grand prize of the 1977 Alexandria Biennale. His next exhibition will be at the Zamalek Art Gallery in December. "What I am working on now is Cairo at night, a collection of paintings in which I concentrate on the mystery of night. People in the paintings do not have clear features -- they are ghostly figures and you feel that there is a secret dialogue going on between them. They seem to be detached from reality. Everybody is withdrawn within themselves. My style does not develop in a linear fashion but rather moves in leaps and jumps. This year I am exhibiting a collection that contradicts my own prior exhibitions. I try to place myself in a different experience with each exhibition. I sometimes force myself to go through certain rituals so I will have some sort of disruption and through this disruption work comes. Travelling to unfamiliar places is one such ritual. I have lived in different environments. I have lived in the desert. I built a house in Fayoum. I built a house on an island in the middle of the Nile. My last exhibition had a strong relation to the trees and Nile because I was living on this island. I think that art can be like a daily diary, it can reflect changing states. There are some artists that, as soon as you see their work, you recognise it at once. If Iraq is destroyed, if Palestinians get killed, if astronomers land on Mars, if the government is reshuffled, it is all the same. But I think artists should reflect current realities in their work. What is the use of a good painter whose work still speaks of the 60's and 70's when it is 2004? If he continues doing the things he did 30 or 40 years ago it means he is not alive, or not living the moment. And the moment is very important because art creates, or takes part in creating, this moment for the future. The past belongs to the past. Artists have to be aware of what is happening now in the arts, what is happening in society and politics. In 3002 someone will look to see what was happening in Egypt in 2004. You can make a balanced painting as a final product but a final product is not in and of itself art. There is a deception here -- there is a big difference between a final, finished product and art. The product is just a small brick in an ongoing construction, and it is the ongoing construction that is art. So do not be deceived by somehow having achieved a style with which you are pleased, do not find contentment in that. You must, instead, be concerned with art as a whole, and see what you are doing as the inscribing of a word in a book. As soon as I reach a point of conviction in art I start disbelieving in it again, I start looking for something to doubt. The journey is what is important. To be in a constant state of search, to be constantly anxious, constantly nervous, this is far better that to surrender yourself to the repeating of a single image. That would be laziness, it would be artistic masturbation. The journey has to go on. You must be like the Prophet Abraham searching for God. First he worshipped the moon but he discovered that the moon derives its light from the sun so he started worshipping the sun only to discover that it sets at dusk, so it could it could not be what he was looking for. The artist, as soon as he believes in something starts to disbelieve in it again, and so on and so on. You look always for a new certainty, knowing that it will be certain only for a moment. The more you delve into art the more it uncovers its secrets for you. Happiness for me is not to reach an end or a conclusion but to continue the journey of searching. I strive always to try and rejuvenate my character. I throw myself into the painting without knowing how the painting will end. If I knew how it would end I would never finish it. I find that the process of work takes me to different atmospheres; if you put my work under an x-ray you will find many overlapping layers. For example there are some works that start with a photographic image and on top of it many different layers of graphic and painting, collage and photo shop scanning until it reaches its current state. There has to be this element of surprise. I don't want to feel safe. I like to feel that I am in constant danger, that the painting can be ruined at anytime. The painting has to be problematic. I try out many different techniques, so I am always in the process of solving problems. Painting for me constitutes a problem -- an intellectual and a technical problem, and the problem gets solved through the process of work. Frankly I don't care about the final product. I derive my real pleasure from the process itself. What benefit would I get if people liked the final product and I became rich and famous. If I had a lot of money then I would have to start thinking of how to spend it and that would be a distraction from working. My only pleasure is when working. Anything else, those additional luxuries, well, all they can do is detract from the work, occupy time and consume energy. They are superfluous."
