http://cyberblogue.com/tag/update/ Exhibited as part of Gertrude Studios 2022, curated by Tim Riley Walsh at Gertrude Contemporary.
Gunnaur Inspired by the abstract painter Al Held’s remark that “all Conceptual art is just pointing at things,” John Baldessari created the series Commissioned Paintings (1969), which depicts a hand pointing at things. The quote is relevant to my practice of pointing out/ collecting found images, copying, and transforming them into alternate archives.
The images were created from found images collected from a studio near the Great Pyramids area for tourists doing the cliché poses of pointing at/ touching the top of the pyramids. After printing the images, I rephotographed the prints by focusing his medium format camera on the tourists’ hands and the pyramid’s landscape, imitating the gesture of hands pointing at things at Baldessari’s work.
In another part of the work, I recreated part of John Baldessari’s work: Wall Painting (2017), in which, for twenty-four days in October and November, twenty-four students painted the back wall of the Monash university gallery a colour of their choosing, then they hang a black and white image of the pyramids in the centre of the wall. Majed Fayyad, a friend who was a student at Monash at that time, chose Ohakune and painted the wall on my birthday before we ever met in 2017. After building a timber wall in the gallery space of Gertrude Contemporary, I invited Majed to paint the wall with the same color, Ohakune, on the same day of the original performance, 23 October.
Touching the Pyramids #1, scan from a medium format film.
Installation view, Gertrude Studios 2022, featuring ‘Touching the Pyramids: Majed meets Baldessari, Ohakune, 23 October’ by Ezz Monem, 2022 presented as part of Gertrude Studios 2022, curated by Tim Riley Walsh at Gertrude Contemporary. Photo: Christian Capurro.
Timber wall painted by Majed Fayad, Ohakune paint, Tasmanian Oak frames, archival pigment prints, 41 x 29 cm (framed); 240 x 320 x 65 cm.
Scans from 35mm slide film shot while painting the wall by Majed Fayyad and installing the work at Gertrude Contemporary.