Borrowing its title from the hardware device, the ‘flash memory’, this exhibition looks at how physical objects transfer digital data, and how digital data brings us back to physical questions, literally and metaphorically, in an alchemical symbiosis. Through virtual reality, digital illustrations, phygital objects, animation and video, this group exhibition is curated to look at collective and individual memories, in a post Web 3.0 age, where notions of love, the divine, and futurist angst come together to catalyze how we speak about our realities today. 

The exhibition focuses on artists working within the Arabic speaking region, who live and work in cities such as Riyadh, Cairo, and Beirut, and whose work offers a fresh take on what digital art could look like today. Combining fields of expertise as varied as urbanism, anthropology, philosophy, heritage and design, the works showcase multiple positions and subjective journeys.

Exhibited artworks

COSMIC POWERS by Omar Houssien
In “Cosmic Powers” Omar Houssien showcases four digital illustrations depicting planetary bodies that emerge as alchemical and mythical figures. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the Sol, all  are heavenly bodies associated with power, authority and strength in myths, lore and our quotidian scientific imagination. The works evoke a sense of grandeur, decadence and sovereignty. The unique digital illustrations are printed, mounted and then hand-gilded into bespoke one-of-one physical/digital works, while playfully invoking a minimalist Gustav Klimt spirit. Each work is a singular one-of-one collectible. The work is presented as a series of four digital illustrations, hand-gilded and framed.

ZAR by Omar Houssien and original music by Khaled El Gabry
In this digital animation which is part of the series “Gloria Mundi’, Omar Houssien explores themes of early 20th century spiritualism in Egypt. Cairo, which was known for its exorcism, seances and underground spiritualists movements at the time, inspired Omar Houssien to extract characters from that moment in history, immortalizing them through these digital loops. Set to the music of composer Khaled El Gabry, the artworks take us on a journey through the occult. From Zar to coffee cup readers, we journey through hypnotic digital animations and haunting sounds.

STILL EVOLUTION by Mariam Sadik
Looking at the body and its politics in the context of marriage, Mariam Sadik stages a digital performance work that looks at what she describes as the ‘marriage market’. Chronicles of family feuds, class clashes, normalized habits, myths and fears intertwine in this explosive work that places the female body as the main character in this performance work. ‘Still Evolution’ is an oxymoron, a difficult process, and an ongoing documentation of body politics. “Still Evolution” is presented as a single-channel video of 2 minutes and 48 seconds duration.

BODY TALK by Dina Jereidini and Zeina Raafat
Body Talk brings the work of writer Zeina Raafat with digital artist Dina Jereidini into a unique collaboration, creating a quasi-cinematic experience through digital sculpture and text. Reflecting on the limitations of language in relation to containing and describing the body, the work explores personal memories, affect, oral histories and gender. What are the categories, conventions, and consequences of the body’s gendered presence? Informed in part by iconic film characters from the golden age of Egypt’s cinema history, Body Talk offers an experimental take on urgent questions. In Body Talk, famous characters from 1950s and 1960s films have been digitally reconstructed in their respective gender-bending roles referencing a common thematic trope among films of the era. Accompanying the sculptures is a soulful text referencing the musical works of singing diva Um Kulthum. This text suggests an inner/outer monologue, projecting the thoughts of the body outwards, as it receives gendered projections of its own. A poetic moving digital sculpture, a video performance, and a short film all at once. “Body Talk” is presented as a single-channel video installation.

IBN ALOMDA AND CO. by Adam Kucharski
Adam Kucharski takes us on a journey through advertisement in visually supersaturated Arab megalopolic cities such as Cairo, Baghdad or Amman, and uses their ubiquitous and particular visual vernacular as a lens to look into futurist products and product placement within cities. Six artworks mounted within a three-channel video and digital imagery installation. A nutrient slurry called ‘Nefertari’, hydraulic technology or magnetized gimbals are objects and products which Adam invites us to think of as basic commodities in a near, dystopian future. Through crafted worldmaking, the artworks mischievously look like advertisement lightboxes, selling fictitious products which may include bespoke tailored body armors or other far fetched accessories, reminding the viewers of Mad Max, Warhammer 40,000 and other futurist and sci-fi potential narratives of cities we live in. The work is presented as a three-channels video installation. Videos presented include Nefertari for Nutrient Slurry, Mayor’s Son Body Armor Smith, Modern Standard for Airlocks, Doctor Ibrahim Farghali for Discount Cybernetics, Alhasna for Advanced Hydraulics, Alafandi for Magnetized gimbals.

EXIT by Maryam Tariq
This digital animation plays with the concept of escape and discovery, challenging the viewer to consider what lies beyond the boundaries of their current reality. Playfully designed to look initially like a soothing space, it takes us quickly to experience fear and doubt. The blending of natural elements with digital aesthetics emphasizes the idea of transition—from one state of being to another, from one world to another, as if navigating through levels of a game in search of the ultimate exit. Single-channel video loop with original music composition.

THE RIVER PEOPLE by Ahmed El Shaer
This Virtual Reality project is a research conducted through artistic tools, documentary strategies and game design practices to develop a world that looks at the lost cultural and architectural heritage of people from Nubia in South Egypt. Nubia, which is a rich cultural site, has lost much of its heritage, buildings and stories when it was drowned while constructing the man-made lake Nasser in 1965, during the process of building the Aswan High Dam. Prior to this modern day loss, an ancient civilization known generally as the forgotten kingdom reminds us of another layer of loss of history. Ahmed El Shaer here constructs a world with stories, characters, diagrams and symbols, to invoke these memories of loss, and to safeguard what remains. The project is presented as a virtual reality installation