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This article in the Arabic language
ِAt : Al Shorouq Newspaper Website : http://www.shorouknews.com/ContentData.aspx?id=228854
The article translate to English by: Youssef Mohammed
In the Micro Mosaic exhibition, drawing is made by the use of colored glass particles and ceramics
by :Samia Saffan
Cleopatra came from the glorious Pharaonic past, to stand at the Opera House now and receive her Egyptian grandchildren with friendliness, but without the royal rites.
The loving queen is one of plates of Saad Romani exhibition for “Micro Mosaic”, hosted by the opera house until 23rd of this month at the Hall of Fine Arts.
Thousands of micro pieces of colored glass forms the bronze skin, the exact shape of the face, which is surrounded by short black hair, but Cleopatra catches the tail of her Pharaonic colored dress. She looks casual and flowing like a modern mannequin, as if she is the Pharaonic spirit gave life to the rigid glass shards.
Shadia Mokhtar, director artistic television programs, cuts her meditation about the plate of Cleopatra and says: “Check the micro pieces of colored glass, you will find more than forty colors in every inch. Here, the glass speaks”. She addressed some students of Fine Arts and said that 39 plates in the exhibition took 18 years to be implemented.
Mosaic, in classical Arabic, is one of the mural arts that use rocks, ceramic pieces, colored glass and wood in drawing the plate. “Any two colored stones set together can possibly make a mosaic plate”, said Saad Romani, attributing the genesis of this art to the ancient Egypt, adding that this is clearly demonstrated in the collection of Tutankhamen.
The new thing which is added by Saad from the viewpoint of the British mosaic artist Gisela Gibbon is that “He used pieces ranging from a millimeter to centimeter to draw the plates. He chooses the dimensions and directions of the micro pieces to make the parameters of the plate clear despite the similarity of colors.”
Preparation of the first plate took one year and a half. This plate was called “The fruit dish”. Thousands of colored glass panels of thousands of colors are the material of the work. He cuts them himself. Then he uses a magnifying glass to start in the selection of an infinite series of colors, “but at the best circumstances, no plate may be completed in less than four months”.
Gisela, who came specially to attend the exhibition, says “It is a unique event”. It is “the first solo exhibition all over the world for the micro mosaic”, she says.
the micro mosaic, which plates adorn the ancient churches in Europe, is considered by Gisela, a critic and member of the British Association of Mosaic Artists, as “Accurate and hard work but it is immortal, where the regular paintings perish by time, but the glass lasts for thousands of years”.
Omar El Sharif, Fairuz, Robert De Niro, Naguib Mahfouz and Beethoven are glass faces whose features speak, but the Iraq Safia, who is drawn by an orientalist since dozens of years, and re-drawn by Romani through the use of micro mosaic, is the challenge from the standpoint of the critic “I can see the glittering chiffon worn by the girl”.
Redrawing of old works such as “Samson and Delilah”, did not preclude the existence of a number of the artist’s plates like “The Spirit of Music and Lighthouse and Spring”, in addition to some of surrealist works.
The artist Saad Romani says that when he started drawing his plates since 18 years, he had dreamed to establish a private museum to commemorate his works, but with time and the effort needed by the work, the idea seemed to be impossible. The alternative is a series of exhibitions initiated by the Opera exhibition, followed by an exhibition at the Mosaic Artists’ Association in Britain during the month of October, and then another exhibition will be made at the Museum of Mustafa Mahmoud in Alexandria. During these exhibitions plates will be displayed for sale at a starting price of 35 to 200 thousand pounds. He said: “There is no need for a museum, as my works will stay eternal, even if I sold them”.
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