Egyptian Artist Dina Fahmy Honors the Past While Diving into Web 3.0
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- 04 Apr 2022
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“Having a bit of both – the past and the future – is and always will be the great balance that makes this world worth living and beautiful as it is,” Dina Fahmy, one of Egypt’s pioneering contemporary artists, tells Egyptian Streets.
Since 2011, Fahmy’s art has taken different turns as she traveled to different countries across the world, initially experimenting with the warmth of idealism, to most recently, minimalism. Today, her chosen style can be qualified as colorful minimalism.
In 2015, she participated in her first group exhibition of artists at the Italian Consulate in Cairo, followed by a second collective exhibition at the Cairo Opera House. In 2016, she reached the peak of her artistic career with paintings such as “The Southern Woman” (2016).
Fahmy’s latest art projects shift digital art towards the organic, the gentle, the elegant and the beautiful. Inspired by ancient Greek mythology, she uses art as a thread to connect the audience with the past, and discover the hidden stories that carry wisdom and imagination beyond current time. Even if one cannot grasp what these ancient myths mean at first glance, one can unravel more profound wisdom, and mystery overtime.
Fahmy’s art pieces challenge our fast-paced modern world and pushes for a ‘slow art’ movement, where the viewer is encouraged to contemplate the beauty of the art rather than those that are simply visually striking or “eye candy” art. Merging the divinity of ancient mythologies with futurism, she carves her very own space in the rapidly changing digital art scene.
The painting style of ‘Myth of the 99’, her most recent work, is geometric and vibrantly colorful minimalism. The art piece tries to blend elements from the past, the present and the future. The past is honored through inspiration derived from Greek Mythology, the present is expressed in the physical journey of creating each piece – sketching out the composition, color mixing, layering – and finally the future which is captured through digitizing the work.
According to Fahmy, the number 99 is a magical number in numerology, believed by some to symbolize wisdom, leadership, universal harmony, karma, and destiny. To those who believe in the practice, it signifies a higher purpose and connects with one sole mission, and that it is the conclusion of one stage in life and the start of a new one. In addition, in Islam, God has 99 names Asmaa Allah Al Husna (God’s Beautiful Names); which is a very powerful indication of how significant this number is to people of certain beliefs.
From the first canvas paintings to Web 3.0, art as we know it has always been part of humanity’s technological developments. But the reverse of this relationship is also important, as in the course of their work, artists such as Dina Fahmy develop their own new techniques and push the boundaries of imagination in ways that can provoke new directions in technology and traditional art.
Egyptian Streets spoke with Dina Fahmy to explore how modern artists can cope and adapt to these technological developments, all while maintaining their simplicity and traditional art techniques.
AS AN ARTIST, WHY IS COMBINING THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE SO IMPORTANT TO YOU PARTICULARLY IN OUR TIME TODAY?
Because the past is our legacy and heritage, our lessons learnt from our ancestors, and what made us who we are today. We live in the present and must take advantage of every moment, while the future is what we look forward to, as we must be prepared for it and always be one step ahead to cope with changes.
Through this work, ‘Myth of the 99’, I wanted to emphasize the importance of old civilization’s myths and stories and how interesting these stories are to our imagination, creativity, and also to human patrimony. Read More...
