Chant Avedissian

Rose Issa Projects, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2005 

This work is in very good condition. There is very minor wear to the edges of some of the papers in keeping with the artist's chosen medium and working process. The colours in the catalogue illustration are very accurate.
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Chant Avedissian, with his sophisticated stenciled works, unifies Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and dynastic monuments with pictures of modern national heroes, admired politicians, popular singers and actors. These pictures are based on media imagery from Gamel Abdel Nasser’s rule (1956-1970), a decade that witnessed a socio-cultural reawakening permeated with a vigorous wave of Arab nationalism. Avedissian's concern for the disappearance of Egypt's rich heritage at the outbreak of the first Gulf War motivated him to explore topics such topics as memory, history, imagery and self-representation in Egyptian culture. This shift in focus was a defining moment in his career as a contemporary artist, which had previously concentrated on photography and hand-worked textile panels.

The result is an impressive twenty-one-panel installation from Avedissian’s Icons of the Niles series, creating a splendid mosaic of Egyptian cultural history that retraces his country’s past and combines nostalgic imagery with a celebration of Egyptian iconographical motifs. The artist blends his own pigments and uses a delicate stencil technique to transfer the image onto card or locally produced paper. The stencil technique requires a simplification of line and colour, and thus becomes similar to the hieroglyphic model of symbols. By means of repeating and layering images, Avedissian saturates his works with various suggestions and connotations, eloquently drawing our attention to the many faces of modern Egyptian society and Cairo’s famous celebrities such as Umm Kalthoum, Dalida and Princess Fawzia, among others. Each stenciled panel embodies a variety of influences and themes, creating vivid organic patterns. His process of creation skilfully combines the use of local pigments, gum arabic, and hand-coloured textiles; the result is presented as a powerful vehicle for the artist’s personal memories and experiences. Avedissian’s work, unique in its approach and execution, repeatedly compares and contrasts the West and the Middle East, art and propaganda, and tradition and modernity.