And He Said: This is Power?, Do you need to eat wasabi to get emotional?, 2022/2024 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projector. Production support: Ahmed Lesi and Mahmoud Bakar.

A photography session in a Cairo bodybuilding gym captures Egyptian men performing traditional bodybuilding poses, then captures their expressions as they taste wasabi for the first time. As their peers watched, a dynamic of peer pressure emerged. Many men tried to hide their reactions during the shoot, revealing their true discomfort only after the camera’s gaze had shifted away. The work explores the tension between the display of power and the urge to hide vulnerability.

Thanks to Ahmed Lesi, Mahmoud Bakar, and all the participants of the photo shoot.

 

And He Said: This is Power?, Do you need to eat wasabi to get emotional?, 2022/2024 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projector. The finalist exhibition of the 2025 Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art, Montsalvat.

 

 

 

And He Said: This is Power?, Do you need to eat wasabi to get emotional?, 2022/2024 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projector. The finalist exhibition of the 2025 Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art, Montsalvat.

And He Said: This is Power?, Do you need to eat wasabi to get emotional?, 2022/2024 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projector. Courtesy of the artist and THIS IS NO FANTASY, Naarm Melbourne. Photo: Christian Capurro.

 

And He Said: This is Power?, Do you need to eat wasabi to get emotional?, 2022/2024 35mm slides, Kodak Ektapro slide projector. Courtesy of the artist and THIS IS NO FANTASY, Naarm Melbourne. Photo: Christian Capurro.