Bahia Shehab

Bahia Shehab

Bahia Shehab Born 1977 (age 43) Occupation Artist, art historian, designer and scholar Employer The American University in Cairo (2010-

                  Present) 

Style calligraffiti

Awards TED Fellow (2012) · BBC 100 Women (2014, 2013) · Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture (2016) · Prince Claus Fund (2016) . Skoll fellow (2019) . Bellagio resident (2019) Website www.bahiashehab.com Bahia Shehab is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, political activist and historian whose work focuses on the interaction and intersection of modern identity and ancient cultural heritage. Her imaginative combination of calligraphy and Islamic art history produced cutting-edge, beautiful, impactful street art during the Arab Spring and continues to inform her work as an educator and designer. Having always been concerned with identity and preserving cultural heritage, she investigates and uses art history to reinterpret contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues. Her culturally oriented work enables her to use history as a means to better understand the present and find solutions for the future.

Bahia believes that art may be employed for the purposes of social change and has explored this phenomenon through her artwork, which focuses on socially charged themes such as Arab identity and women's rights. Her research is largely concerned with understanding the Arabic letter and she has been preoccupied with Arabic calligraphy in much of her work. Her art has been displayed in exhibitions around the world and she has received several awards and recognition for her achievements.

Contents

Early life and education Educational Work and Research Art A Thousand Times NO" and Political Graffiti Landscape/Soundscape: 20 Minarets from the Arab World Global Street Interventions Campaign The Chronicles of Flowers Project Light The Reflections of Shangri La Recognition and awards Philosophy Publications References

Early life and education

Shehab was born in 1977 in Lebanon,[4] and grew up there. She holds a PhD degree in unified multiplicities: ‘Arabic Letters Between Modernity, Identity, and Abstraction’ from Leiden University in The Netherlands (2019), an MA in Islamic Art & Architecture from The American University in Cairo, Egypt (2009), and a BGD in Graphic Design from The American University of Beirut, Lebanon (1999)

Educational Work and Research

Academia: The Graphic Design Program at the AUC In 2011, Bahia established the Graphic Design program at the Department of the Arts in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the AUC.[6] The major's design curriculum revolves around the visual culture of the Arab world and students are encouraged to present a keen awareness of Arab visual culture as they work on various design projects. Bahia encourages her students to make use of their interests while developing their work and emphasizes the need to use design to solve problems.[7] In 2015, the first graduating graphic design class presented their graduation projects in the Sharjah Art Gallery at the AUC. Their projects were concerned with rebranding public institutions, human rights, social issues, cultural heritage, political reflections and personal expression.[7] Bahia has taught over fifteen courses on graphic design, including theoretical courses on the history of Arab graphic design, the history of Arabic calligraphy and the history of advertising in the Arab world. Her courses also include practical tuition on Arabic typography, introduction to design, logo and corporate identity, packaging, retail design, illustration and advertising and branding. She has also served as senior thesis advisor for graduating classes.

Edraak Courses

Bahia's educational achievements have not only been limited to university coursework. She has also participated in developing MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for Queen Rania Foundations' educational platform ‘Edraak’, where over 50,000 students have registered to date. In Fall 2015 and Spring 2017, the course "Introduction to Graphic Design", was offered to Edraak students. Another one of her courses, "Introduction to Arabic Type Design" was offered in 2019. [8]

Conferences and Symposiums _____________________________________________________________________________ Bahia has given many public lectures in over 26 cities on her art practice, speaking at conferences, symposiums, universities, institutions and museums around the world. She has spoken widely about her "A Thousand Times No" project and about her contributions to the art scene in the context of the Egyptian revolution of 2011. She frequently lectures internationally on Arab visual culture and design, design education and curriculum development, women's' rights, social issues, Islamic cultural heritage and her art practice.[2]

Jury and Board Work Bahia served as a jury member for a number of competitions including: Catchlight Awards, online - USA, February 2020 MENA Cristal Awards, Beirut - Lebanon, April 2018 Poster for Tomorrow, Paris - France, October 2017 Wasla in collaboration with the Prince Claus Fund and the Embassy of the Netherlands, Cairo - Egypt, September 2017 Mahmoud Kahil Award, Beirut - Lebanon, November 2016 Wajiha Design Competition, Cairo - Egypt, October 2016 Poster for Tomorrow “Make Extremism History”, Online - France, September 2016 Egypt Through Swedish Design, Cairo - Egypt, May 2016 100 Best Arabic Posters Design Competition, Cairo - Egypt, March 2016 Poster for Tomorrow “Work Rights”, Online - France, September 2014

Art

‘A Thousand Times NO" and Political Graffiti In 2010, the Khatt Foundation in Amsterdam invited Bahia to produce an artwork for the exhibition "The Future of Tradition", whose purpose it was to commemorate 100 years of Islamic art in Europe in response to the exhibition "Masterpieces of Muhammadan Art" at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany. Her project "A Thousand Times NO" was an art installation and research project that went on display in a room curated by Huda Smitshuijzen Abifares, the founder of Khatt Foundation, with other female artists from the Arab world celebrating the Arabic script. The main message that Bahia sought to convey through her artwork was the simple "NO". In accordance with the Arabic saying, "No and a thousand times no", Bahia sought out one thousand different Arabic ‘no's. She found them on buildings, mosques, plates, textiles, pottery and books from countries such as Spain, China, Afghanistan and Iran, where Islam had thrived at one point in history or another. These one thousand ‘no's were displayed altogether in the form of a plexiglass curtain at the Haus Der Kunst exhibition. Next to this installation was a book, which was published by the Khatt Foundation, where Bahia gathered all one thousand ‘no's in chronological order, together with the names of the places where she found them, the media that were used to write them, and the patrons who were responsible for commissioning the works upon which they were found.[17]

Landscape/Soundscape: 20 Minarets from the Arab World "20 Minarets from the Arab World", is a significant cultural project that was displayed at the Arab Contemporary Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. In this project, Bahia takes the minaret, an important element of the architectural landscape in the Arab world, as the starting point. She displays 20 minarets from the Arab world while taking into consideration their proportions and begins with the smallest minaret from Mogadishu and ends with the tallest one from Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. She also includes the minaret of the Great Mosque of Aleppo in Syria but it appears to be in ruins to represent the cultural disaster that struck in 2013 when the minaret was bombed. In this project, Bahia was concerned with how the Arab cultural heritage was being physically destroyed on one hand and, on the other hand, how it was being intellectually attacked by Western nations and labelled as backwards and terroristic. As part of the installation, Bahia also included the adhan (call to prayer) in the voice of a woman. Her choice was inspired by the idea that women should raise their voices to God.[18]

Global Street Interventions Campaign Since 2016, Bahia has been working on a global street interventions campaign, spray-painting quotes from the Palestinian revolutionary poet and author Mahmoud Darwish on the walls of streets around the world. The quotes include, "Stand at the corner of a dream and fight", "I had a dream that will be” and “A butterfly cocooned in prisons", in honour of Mahinoor Elmasry who was arrested along with countless others for standing against injustice in Egypt.[19] Other quotes include, "No to the impossible", "We love life if we had access to it", "I will dream", "How big is the idea, how small is the state", "Those who have no land have no sea", "On this earth there are things worth living for", "One day we will be who we want to be, the journey has not started and the road has not ended", and "My people will return as air and light and water".[20][21][22] The style with which these quotes are painted is largely abstract and geometric.

The Chronicles of Flowers In 2017 Bahia opened an exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey called "The Chronicles of Flowers" which revolves around a personal documentation of Bahia's significant relationship with flowers. When Bahia broke her left knee in 2011, her mother came to Cairo from Beirut to look after her and she would create flower arrangements from the garden and place it next to Bahia's bed. This led to Bahia's interest in documenting flowers for years to come. More than that, for Bahia, these flowers have significant similarity to the women in her life as they have given her the chance to better understand herself and her society. The exhibition involved plexiglass screens, video and audio projections and flower scents allowing the audience to enjoy a multi-sensory experience. A book, whose narrative begins from Lebanon's Civil War in the 1980s and ends in 2017 long after the revolution in Egypt, also contains a documentation of 77 flowers along with their significance to Bahia. The exhibition ran from 9 May to 17 June in 2017.[25][18]

Project Light Project Light is a global art campaign that was launched by Peek Vision and Fine Acts. The aim of the project is to raise awareness and increase public engagement for everyone's right to sight.[26] In Phase 1 of the project, the goal is to allow a number of artists, of which Bahia is one, to create contemporary art pieces based on the concept of the right to sight. The campaign seeks to encourage policymakers to make decisions that will allow people better access to eye care.[27]

The Reflections of Shangri La Between 9 August and 22 August 2018, Bahia completed an artist residency at the Shangri La Museum for Islamic Art, Design & Culture in Honolulu, Hawaii. During this period, she studied Doris Duke's collection of Islamic art and used her findings as part of an exhibition, "Reflections on Shangri La", which opened on 27 September in the Arts of Islam Gallery at the Honolulu Museum of Art.[28] While studying the artwork in Shangri La's collection, she noticed that many women had been depicted as illustrations but that these illustrations were miniature. As such, for the exhibition, she decided to make these women the center of

the works by increasing the sizes of the illustrations drastically. Her aim is to give visitors the chance to better see how these women from different dynasties lived and looked.[29] A second part of her residency involved the creation of a two-part mural onsite at the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design. Based on a poem from the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, the stanza depicted in an original artist-created font of foliated and pixellated Kufic, with roots instead of vegetation, as a site-specific commentary on colonized land.[30]

Recognition and awards

In 2012 she became a TED fellow and gave a TED talk about her project "A Thousand Times No"[31] In 2013 Bahia was one of the BBC’s selection of ‘100 Women’, chosen to meet and discuss important issues.[32] In 2015 Bahia was featured in the documentary film “Nefertiti’s Daughters,” which recounts the important role that street artists played during the Egyptian revolution, with a special focus on what women did during that period and how they participated in the struggle to attain women's rights. The film's director was concerned with particular women artist's perspectives on the events that were taking place in Egypt.[33] In 2016 Bahia's work on the development of the Arabic script culminated in her becoming a laureate of the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands. Her successful integration of the historical Arabic script with current political events, bringing historical research out into the streets in the form of street art using her "A Thousand Times No" project, created a breakthrough in the knowledge of the uses of the Arabic script.[34]. In the same year she was shortlisted for the Jameel Prize 4 award from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for her work on the "A Thousand Times No" project.[35] She also became a senior TED fellow, and again featured on the BBC's list of ‘100 Women’. [31] In 2017 she became the first Arab woman to receive the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture for her use of historical Arabic calligraphic scripts in the streets in a modern political context. She received this prize alongside another Arab calligraffiti artist, eL Seed.[36]. She was also invited to speak at the Obama Foundation Summit in October, where she was given the chance to meet with other leaders and share her experiences as an artist working and achieving in the Arab world.[37] 2019 Bahia was awarded the Skoll foundation fellowship for arts. Skoll foundation utilizes identification of the people and programs already bringing positive change around the world, and empowers them to extend their reach, deepen their impact, and fundamentally improve society on a local to global scale. Since 1999, the Skoll Foundation has led the charge for social entrepreneurship, buoyed by the knowledge that social entrepreneurs are the world’s best bet for solving some of world’s thorniest problems. In the same year Bahia was awarded the Bellagio residency, a program for artists who share in the Bellagio Foundation’s mission of promoting the well-being of humankind, and who produce work that enhances our shared understanding of pressing global or social issues. Awarded participants demonstrate decades of significant contributions to their artistic field or show evidence of being strongly influential in their careers.

Philosophy

In her artwork, Bahia has always incorporated politically charged themes. Her work is concerned with issues of current political interest, such as the 1980s civil war in Lebanon, the revolution that swept through Egypt in 2011 and the plight of political prisoners. An important element of her artwork is her concern for women; and while this takes on a largely political scope in the sense that the concern is often with women's rights, as a woman, Bahia also finds herself concerned with the humanity of women and, through her artwork, she encourages other people to relate to these women's lives however ordinary in some cases they may seem. Her concern for the Arab heritage has led her to pay attention to the Arab woman and the current issues that make the attainment of women's rights a significant issue.

Publications

Shehab, Bahia and Nawar, Haytham, "A History of Arab Graphic Design", The American University in Cairo Press, 2019.[38] Shehab, Bahia, "A Thousand Times No!: Spray Painting as Resistance and the Visual History of the Lam-Alif", in Contemporary Revolutions :Turning Back to the Future in 21st-Century Literature and Art, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.[39]

 Volker Albus, Adélia Borges, Axel Kufus, Tapiwa Matsinde, Divia Patel, Bahia Shehab, Eggarat Wongcharit, Zhang Jie, Pure Gold: Upcycled! Upgraded!, Leipzig: Spector Books, 2017

[40] O’Kane, Bernard & Shehab, Bahia, "The Epigraphy of the Mausoleum of Yahya al-Shabihi", in Doris Behrens-Abouseif Festschrift, Gingiko Press, 2016.[41] Shehab, Bahia, "The Granddaughters of Scheherazade", in Companion to International Children's Literature, Dr. John Stephens, Dr. Celia Abicalil Belmiro, Dr. Alice Curry, Dr. Li Lifang. Dr.Yasmine S. Motawy eds., Routledge, 2016.[42] Shehab, Bahia, "Emotional Translation", in Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution, ed. Mona Baker, NY: Routledge, 2016, pp. 163–177[43] Shehab, Bahia, "A Thousand Times No", in No Gods, No Masters, No Peripheries: Global Anarchisms, Barry Maxwell & Raymond Craib eds., Michigan: PM Press, 2015, pp. 233–241.[44] Shehab, Bahia, A Designer's Dream: Helmi el-Touni Exhibition Catalog, Graphic Design Program at AUC, 2014. Shehab, Bahia, "Landscape/Soundscape: 20 Minarets from the Arab World", In World Architecture, March 2014.[45] Shehab, Bahia, "Quran Lectern of Judge Zaineddine Yahya, Majordomo of Sultan Jaqmaq", in Arab Contemporary - Architecture and Identity, Michael Juul Holm & Mette Marie Kallenhauge eds. Humlebæk: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art & Rosendahls, 2014, pp. 33–34. Shehab, Bahia, "Spraying NO", in Walls of Freedom, Basma Hamdy & Don Karl eds. Malta: From Here to Fame, 2014, pp. 117–119. Shehab, Bahia, "Urban Dialogues", in Positions - Arabich Worlt, Johannes Ebert et el. ed. Göttingen: Steidl-Verlag, 2013, pp. 274–278. Shehab, Bahia, "Faṭimid Kūfī Epigraphy on the Gates of Cairo: Between Royal Patronage and Civil Utility", in Calligraphy and Architecture in the Muslim World, Mohammad Gharipour & Irvin Cemil Schick eds. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013, pp. 275–289.[46]

 Shehab, Bahia, "Voices From the Region: Cairo as Mirror," in Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts, authors Harm J. de Blij, Peter O. Muller & Jan Nijman, USA: John Wiley & Sons, 2013, pp. 315.
 Shehab, Bahia, "GD 99: They Called Us the Harem", in Revolution/Evolution: Two Decades and Four Hundred Designers Later, Leila Musfy ed., Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2013, pp. 152–153.
 Shehab, Bahia, "Voices From the Region: Take Me to the Country of the Beloved." In Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts, authors H.J. de Blij, Peter O. Muller, Jan Nijman, USA: John Wiley & Sons, 2012, pp. 317.
 Shehab, Bahia, A Thousand Times No - Alif Lam-Alif: The Visual History of the Lam-Alif. Amsterdam: Khatt Books, 2011.[47]

A Thousand Times No The book is a research-based tribute to the wealth, diversity and freedom of expression in art from Islamic lands. It is a rejection of conformity and repression that often plagues the Arab and Islamic cultures. It traces chronologically the history of one letter form the Lamalif (which also means NO in Arabic) on different items produced under Arab and Islamic patronage over a period of 1400 years from countries that span from Spain to the borders of China. "A Thousand Times No" is a bilingual book written, illustrated and designed by Bahia Shehab in conjunction with an installation by the artist under the same title at "The Tradition of Future 100 years after the exhibition 'Masterpieces of Mohammadan Art'" (Munich-Germany, September 2010-February 2011)