The project began in 2015, and it makes use of a decade’s worth of market acquisitions – objects dating as far back as the 1920s – and visualisation.
Sama’s fascination with flea markets started in childhood. She is a regular exhibitor at the Al-Sayeda Aisha market and the Friday markets in Alexandria and Cairo: “In every province there are flea markets, each with its specialty and aroma. In Zagazig, Sharqiya, where I was born, the Tuesday market is the most famous.” Another source of inspiration is the Al-Darb Al-Ahmar, near Al-Hussein, where traditional craftsmen display their wares.
Diana’s is the youngest flea market in Cairo. It was started by a small group of people in 2012, and it now has many sections from used books to old pictures, furniture and antiques. Located in Azbakiya, it takes place on Saturday from 4:00am to 6:00pm.
Yehia says the assemblage examines the relationship between humans, things and stories: “There is a magical thing about this market. The very fact that people come and leave at a certain time to sell their old stuff reflects the cycle of life, birth and death. At a certain hour you find the market buzzing with buyers and colourful objects, but by the end of the day everything has disappeared. It was strange to witness people abandoning their own personal history so easily.”
The artist spent her childhood in Kuwait. In the early 1980s, her father started collecting antiques as a hobby. It was then she developed her love of vintage objects. “I remember Al-Haraj Market in mid-1980s Kuwait, famous for antiques and second-hand items from small decorations made of copper to furniture.”
When her family returned to Sharqiya in the 1990s, she was possessed by the spirit of an explorer. “I remember when I first saw local moulids like Ibn Sallam, it was a great inspiration. Watching weird accessories and costumes made me feel like Alice in Wonderland.” By the time she graduated from the art education department at the Zagazig University’s Faculty of Qualitative Education in 1999 — she would later earn a PhD in South Asian art from Helwan University in Cairo — her path was mapped out for her.
Yehia participated in a number of exhibitions outside Egypt, including the International Martinsicuro Festival for Contemporary Art in Italy in 2012 and 2013. As a sculptor her debut solo exhibition, Here Are the Dolls at the Salah Taher Gallery in 2016, featured sculptures inspired by the wooden pillars of the family’s demolished home back in Sharqiya. It was followed by The Sweetness of the Past at the Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum, featuring ships...
Yehia has practised not only sculpture but painting, pottery, paper mache and, notably, assemblage. For her, art is a form of calculated play. “Most assemblage pioneers were women,” she says. “I loved assemblage for its variety of materials and the ability to bring seemingly dead items back to life. It is also related to the issue of identity, and it enables me to practise my previous modes of creativity.
“As I started going to Diana’s Market every Saturday, I developed the feeling that old pictures, for example, were not just worthy of acquiring because they were vintage but also because they have a history, they once belonged to real people who had stories to tell. So I was keen on preserving identity in every assemblage piece I made by collecting similar items and accessories that belong to the same period. I actually enjoy talking to pictures of people from past decades and listen to their music.”
Her exhibition turned the gallery space into a kind of flea market. The Game, for example, features an old chess board with traditional photo frame on top. The Mirror is a huge piece: a bed with four columns and white sheets and a small mirror to reflect the ghosts of those who slept in it — or those simply inspecting it.
There were also shadow boxes, a form invented by the American artist Joseph Cornel (1903-1972): “The idea of shadow boxes is to tell the story of an individual, community or cause representing a whole country in a certain period of time.” Some are named after specific people. Amal’s Box, for example, features a photo album the artist found in Diana’s Market documenting a woman on a scholarship in Europe in 1961-62. “It was important to add the flavour of the period, and to take into consideration prevalent designs and fashion.”
The Shiwar (or Dowry) Box includes a small old suitcase, brown, which is open to reveal a framed photo of an old lady, an alarm clock and a tablecloth. “In the Egyptian countryside,” Yehia explained, “the shiwar refers to the bride’s clothes, her mirror, makeup and accessories. Its shape and size differ according to the bride’s social and economic status.”
Another piece is inspired by the historical Stephenson Pharmacy, which opened in 1899 in Downtown Cairo. Named Agzagi (an old-fashioned term for “pharmacist”), it mimics the original window display. Four medium-sized framed photos in black and white featuring a wedding from the 1920s adorn the walls of one of the gallery’s halls.
Yehia regards this exhibition as an attempt to revive popular art and culture. “I would sense the breath of people when I touched their old stuff,” she says. “It is like playing a game with the past, bringing it back into the present moment.” But assemblage also suggests social critique, and two installations on show feature multiple coloured boxes referring to the houses of poor and middle-class people demolished to make way for highway extensions.
Technically, assemblage seems to be the opposite to painting. While painters tend to delete unnecessary detail, assemblage artists fill their pieces with items, accumulating more and more of them till the last minute. “There are still many ideas to explore related to shadow boxes. This collection features the identity of the middle class. The next project will focus on the artisans’ tools, especially for crafts that have diminished in the age of digital design like oyma,” or engraving on wood furniture.
“I’ve already started collecting items, and I’m curious to learn more of the artisans’ secret world, to retell their stories, taking into consideration their social and economic life at different periods of time.”
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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