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Contact information 

 Sondos Mahdy

sondos.mahdy@hotmail.com

  @seen_k26 

My work aims to explore the aesthetics of circulated images of violence that are circulated on the internet and state TV. The circulated, pixelated images of low quality reveals a phenomena of violence that Egyptians are confronted with daily. My intention is not to highlight our desensitisation of violence but too attempt to refocus the ever-growing reality of violence and its ambiguity for the future of young people in Egypt. In order too, offer a different perspective on the truth of an un-avoidable reality that haunts us in Egypt today; being in between two deaths. My concern here is not for the truth or justice or a political ethos; but rather to try and question or merely explore the reality of a rarely explored phenomena, it centre being the marginalised and its surroundings violence. The phenomena of fragmented pixels forever buried in the past and the everyday.

This notion of capturing these moments of violence or the aftermath of them is what interests me as an extreme necessity. My concern here is not to explore the excoriating violence that the state commits, but rather how the internet and state tv reveals these hidden images to us. And how these images of pixelated, and distorted flashes of violence are as distorted and ambiguous as these moments of violence themselves and the spaces they inhabit and exist in. The unclarity of these images is what unifies them, but yet it is the proximity that we feel towards them as a possible or familiar fate that draws us to try and understand what these images are. There composition, colour, perspective and form are completely unique, as they speak of a type of image that is still quite recent in its form. This being its low resolution, over pixilation and anonymous source. But for one to try and understand these images they must carve and chip away at these fabricated, pixelated layers. Each layer will reveal other hidden distorted flashes of information.

 

Through the use of sculpture, installation and digital painting I explore these contexts. These ‘poor images’ of violence act as a primary reference for my work. Whereby, these installations try to recreate these corporeal spaces and dislocated bodies that inhabit them. By creating distorted figurative sculptures that speak of an aftermath of violence. I create these partial reliefs, were the figures sink within the floors of these prison cells. Whereby these spaces are familiar to us, they remind us of schools, hospitals or even our homes. It speaks to our collective memories of these spaces, and this bring them closer to us. Were the audience is thrown into a space that they suddenly realise wasn’t meant to be seen. 

 Group Exhibitions 

 

  • In /Out festival, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, 2019. 

  • Camberwell collage Degree show, 17 June 2019, London. 

  • Rubble, HARTSlane Gallery, 28th of February 2019, London.

  • TBC, Copland Gallery, 12th of February 2019, London. 

  • Liminal space, Silver building, 27th of November, 2018, London. 

  • Thread softly, Studio Green, 25th of October 2018, London. 

  • Baguette about it, Camberwell Collage of arts,  June, 2018.

  • 0.0354°, The Old Deptford Police station, 2nd of May 2018, London. 

  • Over Capacity, CGP Gallery, 14th of January 2018, London. 

  • Peter is excited Peter is confused, Camberwell Collage of Arts, 16th of May 2017, London. 

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