TaQanoa-تقنع
"Mannequin in my daydreams, I'm disguised as situations that my realistic self couldn't handle."
In tribal cultures, masks aren't mere decoration; they're instruments of transformation. Worn to confront good and evil, escape danger, or invoke ancestral guidance, these masks empower wearers to navigate life's challenges. This powerful connection between mask and wearer resonates with my own experience. Just as masks act as a bridge between the seen and unseen for a tribe, my daydreams become a personal mask, a transformative space where I confront my own realities and grapple with life's complexities. This project reflects this ongoing exploration, a visual manifestation of the power of daydreams to navigate the inner world.
Six self-portraits depict me as a secondary figure, a canvas for symbolic masks inspired by tribal cultures. These masks represent the complexities of daydreams, acting as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious. Each portrait explores a facet of the internal world, delving into the multifaceted nature of daydreams.
Taqanoa, is an Arabic word meaning "Masked"
*This project is the result of an invitation from Tam Gallery to participate in a project related to the exhibition theme "Daydream."
The Mask of hypertrophy – قناع التضخم
The Mask of Fading Reality – قناع تلاشي الواقع
The Mask of Top of Mountain – قناع الوصول لقمة الجبل
The Mask of everything is fine – قناع كل شئ على ما يرام
The Mask of Pink Moon – قناع القمر الوردي
The Mask of Fragile Deterrence – قناع الردع الهش
From Self,About Self
These self-portraits, which you see hanging in front of you, were implemented at different times and were not implemented for the purpose of displaying together as one project. The idea of displaying them under the title “From the Self about the Self” came when I looked at these portraits and found a common element between them that did not exist. In the rest of my work, which mainly depends on instant production through improvisation, without thinking in advance about a specific idea or topic that I would like to raise, I leave myself to improvise and respond to the face that I am trying to reformulate through my digital tools, and all this is supported by listening to a piece of music . Music plays a major role in the development and execution of portraiture, as it guides me and my decisions during the process of improvisation and portraiture production.
The common element in these four self-portraits – in addition to the practical style that I mentioned earlier – is the presence of an idea before starting the implementation and it was part of the motivation to work in a specific direction in each portrait and had an impact in coming up with these results in terms of visual formulation.
This project was created for participation in Roznama 8 by Medrar
#StayHomeWithAllam
During the quarantine period I created this project on instrgram under #StayHomeWithAllam hashtag ,started from 23 March – 5 April 2020.
Idea:
The visual content is always the strongest and easiest to remember, so I will daily – Through 14 Day Quarantine- make a portrait of a person from my Instagram list to remind him to stay at home and therefore he will always remember that during these critical days and his loved ones will always be remembered also to stay at home.
*This is the last portrait, 14 days of quarantine and 14 portraits I designed. This time the portrait is not for a friend on Instagram, but for the fan in my room that covered with a bag to protect it from the dust ,Sitting above the cupboard waiting for the summer to work again, i felt that it’s the best portrait that concluded the project. Stay at home, be safe.
Featured on:
Art in quarantine Digital Gallery hosted by: wreading-digits
StaYyyy, Selfffportrait-HOmMme⁰ featured in corona portrait project https://www.coronaportrait.com/allam
