The “Bahagigo & Co” exhibition – celebrating the work of cartoonists Bahgat Othman (1931 - 2001) and Badr Hamada (1935 - 2000) – is currently showing at UBUNTU gallery.
Badr Hamada (1935-2000) was born in Arish on 13 February 1935. She graduated from the Institute of Art Education in 1957 and worked as a teacher before moving onto professional puppet making.
Originally a hobby of hers, she would design and make dolls to gift them to her friends and family. These puppets caught the attention of Professor Ragui Inayat, who was director of the Puppet Theatre, and he urged Hamada to apply for a competition searching for new puppet makers, which was to launch Hamada’s professional puppet making career.
In 1974, she received a scholarship to study puppet arts in Romania. Hamada also participated in the Seventh Dolls Biennale in 1987, an international competition in doll design held in Poland, where she won the first prize.
Throughout her career, Hamada participated in many regional and international exhibitions in Japan, Germany, Algeria and Lebanon.
She also illustrated several children’s books. She participated in the making of Madinat Al Ahlam (City of Dreams) and Dokki Ya Mazika (Let the music play) TV programmes with late gifted puppeteer Nagui Shaker, in addition to designing Quirat Horeya (An Inch of Freedom), Al Sama Al Thamena (The Eighth Sky), Helm Hattab (A Lumberjack’s Dream), Alaa wal Mosbah (Alaa and the Lantern) and Safrout fi Aamak El Behar (Safrout Underwater).
The exhibition will continue until 2 January.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 17 December, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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