The Waiting Room

2002

In any given street at any given time, day or night, the streets of Cairo

are filled with individuals whose presence seem illusive. Seated in cafés, outside shop fronts, doorways, garages, homes or offices, young and old sharing a common purpose, ‘waiting’. Ramadan views these streets and

the people in them from a personal perspective and as an outsider. Having spent nearly half his life participating in this seemingly passive pursuit of

life, he has set out in this exhibition to contextualize, what to many is

interpreted as a negative cultural trait of the Egyptian character.

Freezing his figures in rusted metal, crude forms with no identifiable

features, these mummified cutouts represent the extreme angst and

frustration tightly sealed within the daily life and expectations of the city’s

population. Cultural norms and political and economic conditions turn the

streets into an urban waiting room where normal life is something that is beyond reach. Ramadan initially photographed random individuals then

friends, capturing the postures of resignation and frustration at their lack

of mobility.

His metal sculptures were then produced by local car mechanics, themselves victims of the cycle that makes up their lives. Raw, welded

images trapped in chairs, twisting and in one case strangling himself

another rooted in indifference to the world around him. The most

disturbing aspect of the installation is that it powerfully emphasizes

the potential violent response to the current political and economical

stagnation of Egypt.