Khaled Hafez

Khaled Hafez is an Egyptian artist who grew up in a community that was reshaped according to continuous changes since the mid-seventies. Due to all of the changes at that time, the society lost several traditions of its Oriental character. It gained other habits with globalization and consumerism being the guiltiest (most responsible) for the new patterns of thinking and attitude. Other artist don’t pay much attention to the investigation of certain situations for instance, authentic versus the contemporary. However, a few others (including Hafez) decide to face more risky-like themes such as the sacred versus the commercial.

Identity is a dominant and recurring theme in his work, as well, he uses in an often manner numerous juxtapositions to explore a combination of multiple visual elements (rather inserting a unique reality.) His distinct mediums are installations, painting, college, videos/films, where the ancient Egypt symbols get combined with Western icons. Old paper is used in the collages, sometimes is found yellowed due to the excessive solar exposure or for natural causes, this represents the mummified past. Icons are today’s present and the painted distorted figures are the proposal for the future. Hafez’s paintings evidenced its unique aesthetic, which is recognizable the body perfection. The choice of that image always reflects the perfection of body proportions, which is a criterion that was used in Mediterranean mythology. His videos discussed consumer conduct, subjugations, political leadership, democracy, fundamentalism, and the sacred.  

The use of western images was inspired by Hafez’s travels in his twenties when he backpacked through several European countries, (which was before the bio and techno-terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, September 11, the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq happened.)  He researched about the West in history books and wanted to discover it, one that represented the free world. As an outcome, the idea of juxtaposing the Western images with eastern images in his collages was developed. Normally, he tried to establish a visual language that represented the legible ideas to both West and East.

Hafez recycles and manipulates images from media and advertising that have entered popular recognition, often juxtaposing them on canvas with ancient gods and goddesses. His work is inspired by the deep-rooted motion in Ancient Egyptian paintings, where all paintings figures (elements), shapes, and animals were in motion rather than caught in a static posture. Goddesses transmit ideas of female supremacy, with male figures commonly appearing smaller to demonstrate the prevailing sexism in mainstream Egyptian culture. Likewise, Hafez also juxtaposed military and civilian figures within a dense, suspense-filled composition.

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