2018
Installation, photography
Gamel Abdel Nasser is always there in my childhood memories, in a space on the wall reserved for him in the living room of every house. A memory of a distant, unknown uncle whose portrait is hung on the wall at my grandmother’s house. The disappearance today of these portraits from the walls made me look for them in other spaces, in houses and walls which exist in movies.
While reviewing Egyptian films, I started collecting screeenshots of Abdel Nasser’s portraits on walls in the scenes of those films. Gamal Abdel Nasser is my Uncle is a series of reproduced portraits of the Egyptian president which have been excerpted from popular Egyptian films, printed and framed according to the original frame and composition on the wall, to display a series of immortal portraits of the iconic figure.
Essa Grayeb, born in 1984, works and lives in Jerusalem as a visual artist working primarily with photography, video and installation. Some of Essa’s works are made from objects, footage and sounds that already exist, which he appropriates and manipulates. In his works, he touches upon notions of representation, absence and loss. His work often originates from an examination of his personal narratives within collective history and memory, while often weaving in and out of reality and fiction. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree (BFA) in photography in 2019 and is currently studying for a master of fine arts degree (MFA) at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design.
