This Land is Mine

Photographer:

Gamal al-Sighini

Title:

This Land is Mine

Description:

Gamal al-Sighini (1917-1977) was born and raised in the Cairo district of Bab al-Shiriya, a neighborhood next to the Khan el-Khalili. He entered art school in 1933 and graduated in 1938. This work measures 33 cm and conveys a powerful message by assuming the static concentrated power of the cat and the hawk of pharaonic iconography, borrowing expressive attitude rather than the symbols themselves. Sighini held a position as the privileged sculptor of the official line. After 1969, Sighini's dramatized emotionalism turned into a morbidity aggravated by the frustration of seeing his sculpture models piling up in his studio and not being commissioned for display in public places. So in 1969, he dumped some of his works in the Nile.