Cover Art Concept

Abstract

Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, Beya Khalifa weaves together different, often absurd worlds with the use of collage—digital and physical. Her collages serve as a visual examination of the human condition and its relation to the universe, often through quirky or satirical narratives. Her work exists in a perpetual state of surrealism and phantasmagoria, almost like a daydream come to life. Khalifa’s collages use antique photographs layered under digital graphics to combine kitsch, Orientalism, fantasy, and history into a seamless investigation of the absurdity of daily life. Representing the jarring dichotomy some Arabs struggle with in terms of identity fragmentation, her recent work is now split between Western and Arab aesthetics and issues. Think of each collage as a portal into a multitude of worlds: surreal, phantasmagorical, and, in a bizarre sense, reflective of the world we live in. In each collage, characters examine and prod their way as giants or as lilliputians through space and earthly terrain, subverting traditional power dynamics between humans and nature—and between humans. Some collages interrogate the universal, while others more specifically try to reconcile the past with the present, as is the case with Khalifa’s Orientalism series. She makes collages of photographs of different Middle Eastern tribes and cultures combined with ancient geometric patterns found throughout the Middle East, critically touching on themes of Orientalism, identity, and postcolonialism in surreal settings.