Death Cult, 1/5 from The Faceless Series, 2006

My work explores the human fear, denial, and embrace of death in contemporary Egyptian and global culture. Growing up in Egypt, the monumental legacy of ancient Egyptian preparations for the afterlife provoked me to confront the implications, illusions, and possibilities of this legacy. My projects continually probe the contradictory impulses in religious, technological, medical, and popular arenas about life, death, and afterlife. My work thus aims to expose the lust for power and perseverance that drives contemporary culture to increasing levels of horror and absurdity.

Reproduction taken from The Paradox Complex

THE PARADOX COMPLEX (2005) limns modern desires for immortality. Six installations � representing
reproduction, cryogenic freezing, cloning,
resurrection, reincarnation, and anti-aging methods --come together to form a 20m x 15m labyrinth. Participants can see through the walls of the labyrinth, but walking through it to encounter each installation, each form of immortality, is a frustrating and tedious task.

My latest project "THE FACELESS"(2006)
juxtaposes the iconography of Death Metal (a sub-genre of Heavy Metal music with faster rhythms and darker lyrics) with the traditions of Religious fundamentalist culture in the Middle East. Death Metal marks a cultural rebellion against religious and political hypocrisy and mediocrity. Piety often constitutes a rebellion against a bureaucratic, commercialized modernity lacking divinity and thoughts of heavenly reward. It is telling that the Egyptian state has perceived both Death Metal and religious fundamentalism as threats to its power and legitimacy. "THE FACELESS" is a musical and visual fantasia in which supposed opposites harmonize, frighten, tease, and surprise the participant. Ambiguously bringing into question religious oppression and racist ideologies, this project simultaneously unifies and upsets social categories and preconceptions.

Cloning, taken from The Paradox Complex