Ahmed Saber, from Egypt, is a young and talented artist.
Saber's peculiar style of metaphysical surrealism harmonizes images of ancient and modern symbols and is a veneration of the cradle in which ancient Egypt's greatest civilization flourished along the banks of the Nile river. His work is a thoughtful tribute to the humble and laborious lives of these Saidi rural communities, the guardians of the world's most precious gift since time immemorial.
Famed playwright William Shakespeare once said, "Life is a theatre, and we are all actors."
"I find out life is a really big theatre! Speaking in a theater-like this may be ambiguous and mysterious, or unreal, marked by confusion and ambiguity. Man can not live a life of fulfillment on bread and water alone, he must have independence, imagination, and individuality. We act to live, and by doing so we attempt to conceal our shortcomings and private actions, to appear better and more appropriate to the others.
The desire to stay alive and to prove our life will drive us towards a destination like this. Life is a very real theater where we find birth, life, and death, pervaded by moments of joy, pleasure, affection, hope, pain, illness, fear, fatigue, suffering, hate, and envy.
There are many theater-life comparisons, such as heroes, outcast performers, oppressed actors, costumes, and even the very own theater curtain that is opened at the start and shut at the end. There are basic life facts too. Everything has a beginning and an end. On a new play, the theatrical curtain is reopened. A birth is preceded by death, one generation refusing the other. Life human beings are males and females. Some players can be good and creative, and others are deceivers and failures.
My works on such a stage are metaphysical renditions of reality with all the symbols and signs representing the practices and rituals lived within us to evoke William Shakespeare's quotation. Among the elements that I used in my paintings are fish as a symbol of reproduction, prosperity, life, health, and fertility, a symbol of renovation, and a highly mythologically used symbol. It is symbolic of regeneration in Arabic legends and Semitic civilizations, and divine religious beliefs.
I often use feline images, reflecting the moving body, versatility, and agility. It is also a creature connected with magic and death-like silence, creeping up on us like mortality that in fate and destiny awaits all of us. I also use pomegranate motifs, which are mentioned in many verses in the Islamic religion. The Latin meaning of pomegranates is an apple that contains several seeds. It is the fruit of paradise, and similarities can be made between pomegranate symbolism and prohibited fruit symbolism, apple, denoting knowledge and temptation, and a bridge between love and war.
The cardinal sin was God's excuse to banish man from the Garden of Eden into a world full of darkness, corruption, and conspiracy.
The rooster symbolizes movement and alertness, the camel symbolizes patience and is an example of the oldest means of transportation, while the tortoise symbolizes heaven and earth unification. The first Christians were those who loved tortoises first. They regarded it as a symbol of evil forces, particularly in times of war, and they are used in folklore as a symbol for longevity.
All the natural symbols I represent in my paintings are employed in spirituality and augury. They pronounce nature's imagination that bears its round shell, like the sky that is above the earth and whose ends are the surface of the earth and the infinite expanse of space. I was keen to use these spiritual images portrayed in ornaments, descriptions, and elements linked to age-old beliefs and traditions inherited. Lastly, I will lie to quote the great artist and visionary Hamed Nada (1924 – 1990), who said: "I'm more interested in diving below the surface into the human being's psyche, rather than outer reality."
Typically Ahmed Saber tends to use symbols; particularly the animal symbol, in some cases imitating the legendary form. In certain instances, the animal model means meaning, even on a broad scale, since the animal carries the iconic implies. The use of such symbols is often replicated in his works, for Artist Ahmed Saber. We see him repeating the use of the fish which is considered one of the fundamental components in most of his works. It means much for the ancient Egyptians; particularly the people of Upper Egypt, whereas for certain territories it was the simple worshipped God. Like Goddess, it was the emblem of creation. Hatmehit-one of the Ancient Egyptian life-goddesses. At this point, we confirm that the artist's cultural context in the ancient civilization and authenticity he portrayed is considered one of the artist's most popular seasons, and for its proliferation. So, we think artist Ahmed Saber's works belong to Metaphysics School and Lowbrow Art School-they 're Post American Modernism.
View Ahmed Saber's work on ARTSY
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* Presented by JM Art Management in collaboration with Safarkhan gallery.
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