Imagination for Liberation

Nada (she/he/they) is an Arab and queer communication designer. Her work is an exploration of tainted identity and diasporic imaginations. Their practice is heavily rooted in typography and the power through spirituality and Islamic Mysticism. Their practice emerges at the intersection of design, text and language.

Artist Statement

My work is an exploration and representation of reconnecting to my cultural roots through the depiction of the modern Arab identity. These works analyse the visual language which

has emerged from the fusion of Islam, everyday Arab life, and Arab media.

The first piece is a diptych of posters exploring our relationship with land and the cosmos. The two posters are composed of digitally manipulated images (images from my family's farm and a prohibited image of the moon at a government checkpoint while travelling across Egypt). The posters are largely typographic and depict lyrics from classical Egyptian songs, one about the moon and one about the sun.

The second piece is a triptych exploring the modern Arab identity and the perversions of the language through the use of the Arabizi writing system (a system which uses English letters and numbers to represent Arabic - eg 7ader). Each poster is composed of a lyric from a Mahraganat (an underground and heavily censored rap scene in Egypt) song. The lyrics are written in Arabizi and again in proper Arabic. The two versions of the phrase are then forced to blend as Arabic is Romanized.

Reflection and Connection to "Imagination for Liberation"

My first piece highlights our relationship to the land and the cosmos. The words on the Sun poster translate to "the sun brings us together". In contrast, the text on the poster of the moon translates to "Mom, the moon is knocking on the door". These two posters illustrate our cultural ties to the land and how the sun and moon rule our community and forms of care.

My second piece is a depiction of the modern Arab identity and how the past has informed the present. The emergence of this writing system and the music of Mahragant is a challenge to who has the power to shape culture. Historically, entertainment was dominated by formal, cultural elites who used classical Arabic. Arabizi and Mahraganat allow for the expression of the modern Arab identity - an expression of Egypt by the people, for the people.