HAMED SINNO ET UN DE SES FRÈRES
HAMED SINNO ET UN DE SES FRÈRES
Acrylic and Color pencil on Wood Board,
150x220 cm
“I can’t tell you what art does and how it does it, but I know that art has often judged the judges, pleaded revenge to the innocent and shown to the future what the past has suffered, so that it has never been forgotten.”
John Berger
As a witness to the pregnancy of Gabrielle d’Estrées, a painting was commissioned and completed in the year of 1594. From an unknown artist, this painting shows Gabrielle d’Estrées in a bathtub with her sister pinching her nipple, in a sign of the upcoming motherhood while Gabrielle holds the ring of Henry of France, father of her soon to be child. This painting bears the same composition of a painting from 1571, “ Diane de Poitieres” by Françoise Clouet.
Therefore, I decided to use the same composition as “Gabrielle d’Estrées et une des ses sœurs” to portray, in my very own way, a particular moment in our recent history when, during a concert by Mashrou’ Leila, in Cairo on 22 September 2017, many concert goers were arrested by the police for waving the rainbow flag in support for the LGBTQ community during the performance. This governmental intolerance to this particular community is recursive in most Middle Eastern countries.
I captured this not-to-be documented event by dedicating this collaborative artwork to Hamed Sinno, the lead singer of Mashrou’ Leila and portraying him pinching the nipple of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god, who holds Ankh, the symbol of immortality. The tree symbolizes the growth of this tolerance movement. In the background, the water fountain symbolizes water; the element that can take any form or shape yet can penetrate rock.
