AHMED BADRY’s body of sculptures and drawings act as a proposition for objects that strive to recover usefulness. The objects, in their current state, only function as tokens for speculation on alternative narratives of production, parallel to and immersed in a neoliberal global economy.

In his series, The Provisionary That Lasts, the artist makes use of impractical scales and non-durable materials to rebuild bodies of everyday instruments. Using found images as models or his own design, he combines the assumed functions of some and erases those of others, in reference to a culture of improvised troubleshooting. The objects act as monuments of thrift, leading to a pattern of language that could exist outside of the prevailing economic conditions.

In an expansive series of architectural drawings, Badry continues his speculation on non-functional objects, through depictions of seemingly impossible, but actually existent homes. Applying acid bleach to coloured paper, Badry uses this common household cleaning material to render his drawings. Buildings perch precariously on narrow bases, houses crowd one another like shoppers in a queue, and aspirational towers teeter tentatively over absent cityscapes. Borrowing the blueprint-like aesthetics of lighter lines on a dark background, these drawings, ironically, propose plans for an inherently unplanned phenomenon, referencing the politics of informal housing. 

Badry examines the effects of the non-codified objects on language, collapsing the two poles of metaphor and metonymy. Through a process of re-presentation using projection, writing, drawing and 3D printing, the objects lose their ability to be named. The tangled object invokes a disruption in communication or possibly access to new neologisms.

AHMED BADRY (b. Egypt, 1979) works across sculpture, installation, drawing, and the moving image.  His solo shows include The Provisionary that Lasts, Medrar, Cairo and AB Gallery, Luzern (2014); Two Minutes Delay, AB Gallery, Zurich (2011); Made in China (with Anastasia Katsidis), Kasko, Basel (2011).

His group shows include How To Build a City with Two Nails and a Wire, Gypsum, Cairo (2022); Open House, Delfina Foundation, London (2017); Contemporary Artistic Revolutions: An Institutional Perspective, AUB Gallery, Beirut (2017); D-CAF | Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival, Cairo (2016); HOME WORKS 7, Beirut Art Center, Beirut (2015); Kunst (Zeug) Haus Rapperswil, Zurich (2015); What are you doing, object?, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2015); Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Algiers (2013); Regionale 13, Projektraum M54, Basel (2012); Cairo Documenta 2, Hotel Viennoise, Cairo (2012); Regionale 11, Hegenheim, France and Freiburg, Germany (2011) and at Darat al Funun, Jordan (2010).

Badry completed the Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, in 2017 and a BA in Art Education at Helwan University, Cairo, in 2003. He holds an MFA from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, 2020. He lives and works in Oslo.