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...
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