It all started when Hana Sakran came across a fake designer carpet incorporated into an oriental setting, leading her to ask the question: how have we come to a place where being stylish meant imitating the higher class? Even more so, how do people across our region project their harsh realities onto external means? And, what is the danger in that? All these questions led Sakran to create her new series ‘How Everything is Kitsch and Egypt Will Lead The Way.’ In this series, the artist explores how “traditional kitschy designs such as flowers and glitter have been deculturized and replaced with high end designer brands.” Through her series, she challenges the notion that there is one way to be ‘kitsch,’ and how Middle Eastern globalization has forced us to reach a point where our cultural roots are fading out.
So what does kitsch mean exactly? The idea of kitsch has evolved to have many different meanings. But in Hana’s art, it is an exploration of the means by which individuals escape their harsh realities through external compensations, such as expensive purchases or tangible changes, and we’ve all been a part of it. When you change your hair for the 100th time, why exactly are you doing it? You want to feel good. You’re trying to create something in your outer world that takes you away from your inner reality, even just momentarily. And this is why people end up getting not one, but twenty botox fillers, why they are never satisfied with the appearance of their houses, the brand of their cars, and it just goes on and on.
Sakran explores this very self-defeating attainment of ‘kitsch’ in her latest series. By displaying a designer carpet in an ironic setting, she reveals to the viewer the extent to which we are sometimes willing to go to to feel ‘better’ or ‘good enough.’ In her piece, it is seen through the lower class believing that being stylish has to do with owning designer attire. In a business owner’s case, it might be that buying a new car will give him an edge amongst his colleagues. In your case, it might be getting that lip filler to make you more beautiful. And in my case, it might be using that Instagram filter to give the right contrast to my face.
This, according to Hana, is the core of ‘kitsch.’ Being so unkeen about our realities, to the point that we project our unhappiness onto external things relentlessly. The reality is, however, that as long as we fail to accommodate our needs by our own accord, none of these means of satisfaction will actually satisfy us, keeping us going on to no end. We all want to feel good about ourselves, whether it’s by trying to belong or to look ‘prettier,’ it all applies to each of us differently. It could be wearing fake lashes on the beach, getting the 100th lip filler, or angling the camera ‘just right’ to get the perfect selfie. One way or another, we have all taken part in these acts of vanity. And the goal is not to put an end to them, but to reach a point where their existence does not ground our own.