As both artist and engineer, Ayah Bdeir melds two fields that may initially appear incongruous. Bridging the gap between her training in engineering and her now thriving artistic career is a masters degree from the MIT Media Lab, an engineering school with a focus on art, design and multimedia.“Just like a sculptor traditionally uses carving tools, or a painter brushes and paint, as an interactive artist I employ software, hardware and electronics to create my work,” she explains.
Bdeir divides her time between New York and Beirut and she is actively involved in projects in both cities. Her family origins are Syrian, however. This heritage or hearkening back to roots shines through in her 2008 collaboration with Kuwaiti designer Luma Eldin, “Teta Haniya’s Secrets.”
This Syrian Teta or grandmother in English, is a fictional character created by the duo. Their accompanying showcase consists of five panties, modified in accordance with the dictates of Syria’s modern-day market traditions. They feature flapping wings, fiber optic cables that light up and pompons that turn- tricks of the so-called “wearable computing” field that Bdeir picked up at MIT.
In Bdeir’s own words the main inspiration was, “the Syrian tradition of hacking electronic toys, integrating them into panties, and selling them in the most casual fashion.”
But there is also a statement on cultural perception underlying the eclectic work that has been showcased at Scotland’s Peacock Visual Arts Gallery and at the Eyebeam gallery in New York. “The aim of the work is to say that, within the norms of society, namely marriage, sexuality is actually very open in much of the Middle East,” explains Bdeir. “The fact that these stores are not hidden away, or underground, and amidst stores selling spices and carpets, suggest that our view towards the subject may be different, but it is not the repressive, asexual, subdued image often associated with the Arab world. On the contrary, beneath the traditional clichés, there is a very rich tradition of being experimental, liberal and comfortable with our own bodies.”
www.ayahbdeir.com
