Youssef Nabil on film, transience and spirituality – March 2009
In his latest solo show in Dubai, Youssef Nabil deals with the idea of transience and impermanence through a series of self-portraits. Whereas the celebrity portraits that shot him to fame five years ago had a characteristic funereal quality to them, these new works are more interested in questions of death, existence and the afterlife.
Though a palpable progression from those earlier concepts, Nabil’s distinctive nostalgic treatment remains. This latest series of hand-painted photographs combines romanticism with spiritual concern to give us an intriguing new body of work. We ask him about this new self-reflective side to his art.
ChinarTree: Why have you recently concentrated more on self-portraits?
Youssef Nabil: These works speak about a certain period in my life. I left Cairo six years ago to travel to Paris and then New York. At the time, I didn’t know many people and I didn’t know what was going to happen to me.
I was concerned with the idea of being somewhere that is not yours and knowing that you’re going to leave again. I started feeling like a visitor everywhere, even in my own country. It was then that I started questioning my life, thinking about the issue of belonging and my existence.
So this exhibition stems from my personal issues, my thinking and my life, but I don’t see myself in the self-portraits. It’s more about humanity and the basic human form.
CT: Are these new works a natural continuation of your previous preoccupations with morbidity?
YN: Yes, I would say they are definitely related to immortalizing the subjects - my obsession with the idea that I may never meet these people again. The whole thing is related to death and living.
This show is called ‘I will go to Paradise’, but it is not meant in a religious sense. It is about knowing and choosing where you want to go and not doubting it.
CT: Why is remembrance such an important theme for you?
YN: I am a nostalgic person, I always miss places, food and I think about the past. I long for the way things used to be with cinema, with the way people dressed and thought. I think people were nicer, more innocent in the past. We’re going into an age which is almost all digital…and it’s too fast for me.
CT: Tell us about this longing and the influence of ‘the golden age’ of Egyptian cinema in your works.
YN: Being an Egyptian, cinema is very central for us. I grew up watching Egyptian movies of the 40s and 50s as a child and I love actors and actresses. One of them is Faten Hamama - she’s called the ‘Lady of Arabic cinema’.
As I got older I discovered that many of these glamorous movie stars are not alive any more. So essentially I grew up being in love with dead people and I think it did something to me subconsciously. I wanted to meet as many of them as possible and photograph them.
CT: How did you come to develop your very personal technique of hand painting over photographs?
I wanted to take black and white photographs of people but then I wanted to add colour without using a colour film. So I decided to colour the works manually myself, so it was more like a painting. Then I started exhibing it and the response was great - first in Egypt and then internationally.
CT: In this series there seemed to be two types of self-portrait you’ve shown, some more staged and some more spontaneous, could you tell us about that?
I would come across some places and just naturally feel that I belonged to the scene - it would fit with my thinking. When I was in Los Angeles for example, I would pass in front of my hotel every day and see this huge tree with huge roots. I felt I had to take a self-portrait there; it reminded me of Egypt.
The ’staged’ ones I created in my studio in Harlem. They are again mainly about Egypt and that’s why I’m wearing the traditional clothing of the Djellabah in one. The bed sheets in another are very typical of Egypt, I collect them.
CT: With many of your photographs resembling film-stills, do you feel film is the next step for you?
Yes, actually I’m in the process of making a film and hopefully I’ll be working on it this year. It’s a short movie on similar themes - almost autobiographical. I can’t actually talk about someone else’s story, it has to be related to me and my experiences.
Youssef Nabil’s show, ‘I will go to Paradise’ is now showing at The Third Line Gallery in Al Quoz, March 12th - April 8th 2009.
