Ezz Monem is a photo-based artist from Egypt who lives and works in Melbourne. He uses photography to explore the pluralism of reality.The images playing with sensations of ambivalence and conflict, giving visual form to the multiplicity of identity in places, people, and objects.
Read MoreMonem sources the images from found photos, fiction films, videos and google street views. He utilizes the mechanical reproduction capabilities of the camera along with various darkroom techniques to transform them into photographic works and imaginary archives. Through the repurposing of images, he attempts to make autoethnographic works that come from his background, of growing up in Egypt and his experience migrating to Australia.
Monem graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University in 2007, but his explorations in visual arts began years earlier. His work has been shown in exhibitions in Egypt, Australia and various other countries in Europe and the Middle East. Recently, he had two recent solo shows at KINGS Artist-Run and Seventh gallery, and received the NOIR Darkroom Most Experimental Image award at the ILFORD CCP Salon. Monem is currently undertaking a Master of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne.
Text courtesy THIS IS NO FANTASY.
