Recycle me - Give me another use
Al Waleed Abdel Mohsen Mohamed
30 August until 4 October
Recycle me - Give me another use
Al Waleed Abdel Mohsen Mohamed
30 August until 4 October
Al Waleed Abdel Mohsen Mohamed
is an independent visual artist and actor, born in Alexandria in 1979, where he currently lives and works. His artistic practice is deeply rooted in human, social, and environmental issues, drawing inspiration from his rich and diverse life experiences.
He began his professional career in 2004 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, working as an Internal Security Specialist. In 2012, he moved to the Documentation Department, where he remained until 2016. That year, he made the decision to resign and pursue a full-time career as a freelance artist.
Waleed worked at Aton Arts Gallery, where he contributed to organizing several art exhibitions. He also participated as an actor in a number of independent short films. What makes his artistic journey unique is the strong influence of his personal experiences — particularly his work in various non-artistic jobs from his university years until 2023. These included car parking attendant, cleaner, mobile phone repair technician, painter, electrician, and more.
He believes these experiences provided him with visual and emotional layers that deeply informed his artistic perspective. His work reflects a blend of personal narrative and social observation, conveyed with honesty and simplicity that speaks to everyday human struggles.
Concept of “Recycle me - Give me another use”
The artist confronts the daily challenge of accumulating waste that calls for recycling. This reality inspired him to adopt an artistic and social initiative entitled "Recycle Me – Another Use." This concept involves reshaping discarded materials and transforming them into works that are both aesthetically pleasing and conceptually rich.
The artist perceives his immediate surroundings not merely as a place to live, but as a space for life and contemplation. From this perspective, he aims to reduce pollution and create a more harmonious relationship with nature. He began utilizing discarded materials found in his environment or collected from elsewhere, reintegrating them into artistic works that carry meaning and significance, ultimately shaping them into contemporary visual compositions.
This exhibition represents an extension of the work the artist presented last year and constitutes the second phase of his ongoing project, which he continues to develop as the foundation for broader future endeavors.
This project seeks to merge aesthetic value with social impact, aiming for a tangible positive effect on moral, environmental, and potentially even economic levels in the future.
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 52H x 46W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 52H x 46W cm
Medium: Mosaic on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 30H x 50W cm
Medium: Mosaic on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 30H x 50W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 52H x 62W cm
The Concept of “Gelliex”
The inspiration for this work comes from a personal experience the artist had while working in a mobile phone shop. On the day of the shop's opening, Gelliex candies were offered to visitors, marking the start of the artist's exploration of a recurring social ritual. He noticed that offering sweets had become a common practice during various openings, serving as a small gesture of welcome that conveys a sense of sharing and celebration.
Building on this observation, the artist adopted the habit of giving each visitor a piece of Gelliex whether they were a customer or a passerby, as a simple act to open the door to dialogue and break down barriers. Over time, he began collecting the discarded candy wrappers and packaging, incorporating them into his artistic practice with a focus on recycling and transforming the ephemeral and overlooked into visual materials.
Thus, this conceptual abstract work was created, bringing together the social dimension of the welcoming gesture and the environmental aspect of recycling waste. It raises an important question: how can simple gestures evolve into an artistic language and acquire broader meaning?
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 50H x 62W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 50H x 30W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 30H x 50W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 50H x 30W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 52H x 33W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 32H x 20W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 30H x 53W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 30H x 50W cm
The Concept of "Sand"
The artist's inspiration originates from a personal experience during the summer of 1997 in Agami, where he encountered a shocking scene of accumulated waste on the beach. This debris formed a visual composition that, at first glance, resembled a work of art. However, it fundamentally represented the ugliness and disfigurement of the environment, leaving him with a profound sense of discomfort and unease.
By utilizing natural materials that appear non-aesthetic, the artist aims to reflect the impact of harmful human behaviors. He even incorporated actual remnants collected from beaches such as Agami, Bourevage, Shatby, and El-Selsela. The sand itself had lost its purity, transforming into what he refers to as "intrusive sand," which had become contaminated over time with pollutants and debris carelessly discarded by people.
The artist became engrossed in the process of transforming this ugliness into an aesthetic construct, attempting to reframe the consequences of unconscious human actions within the artwork. This project not only documents environmental pollution but also questions our relationship with nature. It reveals how art can influence behavior and serves as a call for reflection and change.
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 20H x 30W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 20H x 30W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 20H x 30W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 20H x 30W cm
The Concept of The "Suns"
The artist presents a journey tracing the evolution of our relationship with technology through the medium of music. The scene begins with a simple cassette tape carrying a single song by a favorite singer, which, over time, transforms into the iPod, offering greater variety and broader listening capacity, and later into the flash drive, which surpasses the limits of music to become a vessel encompassing films, books, and other media.
In three of his works, the artist evokes the symbol of the sun as a source of light and radiance, reflecting the positive side of technology and what it offers humanity in terms of energy, knowledge, and new possibilities.
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 30H x 20W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 20H x 30W cm
Medium: Mixed Media on wood board
Artwork Dimensions: 20H x 30W cm
THANK YOU.