Taha Belal: I’m Not Obliged to Do This

Gypsum is thrilled to present two parallel exhibitions opening this November: his second show at the gallery titled I’m Not Obliged to Do This by Cairo-based Taha Belal, and for the first time in Egypt, Istanbul-based artist Gözde İlkin shows her fabric works in a series called The Trap.

Taha Belal’s exhibition brings together a collection of new works that all date 2016. In I’m Not Obliged to Do This, Belal draws heavily from his office job to construct a web of references that crisscross and reflect around the exhibition from piece to piece. A fragment of smoky glass from a desk with family photos unintentionally stuck to it is placed in front of a piece of polished wood veneer. A catalog of tractor parts with a green gradient background on a flat yellow sheet is used as a surface for a glistening cold cement cube.

Showing discrete, modest yet slightly flamboyant sculptures for the first time, Belal continues his formal investigation of objects, images and surfaces from our daily life. Layering materials ranging from silver shards of mirror to soft plasticy vinyl, Belal makes delicate composites suspended between something that feels familiar and something entirely unknown. Here Belal experiments with allowing office work to seep into the artwork and can only hope that the art seeps into the office.