On 14 August at Australian Ambassador Axel Wabenhorst’s residence in Zamalek, Sam Bowker, Associate Professor in Creative Art at Charles Sturt University, spoke about bringing Egyptian art to his students in Wagga Wagga, halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, where there is a large Arabic speaking population.

Bowker’s students are based across Australia and bring their knowledge of the creative arts to rural communities. Bowker’s work has contributed to Australian-Egyptian cultural ties and fostered understanding of Egyptian art.

Bowker is the son of former Australian Ambassador to Egypt Bob Bowker (2005- 2008). Inspired by his time in Egypt, Bowker has been researching, curating, and teaching aspects of Egyptian art in Australia since 2012. He is the co-author of the American University in Cairo Press’s The Tentmakers of Cairo (2018), with Seif El-Rashidi, with whom he is currently writing a second book on this unique Egyptian appliqué art known as khayamiya, the practitioners of which are located at the centre of historic Cairo.

The Tentmakers of Cairo brings together the stories of the tentmakers and their unique and spectacular tents — from the huge tent pavilion, or suradeq, on the street to smaller souvenirs celebrated by quilters around the world. It traces the origins and aesthetics of the khayamiya textiles that enlivened the ceremonial tents of the Fatimid, Mamluk, and Ottoman dynasties, exploring the ways they challenged conventions under new patrons and technologies, inspiring the paper cut-outs of Henri Matisse and continuing to uphold a legacy of skilled handicraft in an age of relentless mass production.

In his quiet, humorous spirit, before the lecture started, Bowker told attendees that he spent his honeymoon in Zamalek in 2012 and was planning to come back in 2020 when Covid stopped him. He shared his experiences of introducing Egyptian artistic practices to communities across regional Australia. Beyond the art of ancient Egypt, in the lecture Bowker also shed light on Egyptian art in the 19th and 20th centuries, and contemporary art and design. He spoke about his collaborations with the Egyptian artists to raise international awareness not just of khayamiya but also of khayal al-dhill (shadow puppet theatre).

He showed a photo of Matisse’s 1948 oil on canvas Interior with Egyptian Curtain, in which a khayamiya motif is clearly visible and images of Matisse (1952) and the Egyptian khayamiya artist Tarek Abdel-Hany (2016) both drawing with scissors: “I wanted my teachings to acknowledge Egyptian contributions beyond the ancient. Instead of Australians linking Egypt to the ancient past only, there are other pasts to consider.” Bowker used the example of Egyptian jewellery designer Azza Fahmy, whose work acknowledges Egyptian history and heritage in a modern format.

He also expressed his pride on showing his students the Wissa Wassef art of tapestry tfeatured in the Selvedge Journal in 2022, the architecture of Egyptian modernist architect Hassan Fathy and his book Architecture for the Poor, as well as the untitled glazed and earthenware sculptures from the Damietta by contemporary ceramicist Ibrahim Said. He also showed images from the “Ramses and the Pharaohs” exhibition of ancient Egyptian antiquities at the National Australian Museum in 2024.

Bowker also cited the project Perception 2016 by the celebrated French-Tunisian street artist eL Seed, in which he sheds light on the Coptic community of Zarayeb located in the neighborhood of Manshiyat Nasr in Cairo. The community has collected the city’s rubbish for decades, developing what is arguably the world’s most efficient and profitable recycling system. With his team and the help of the local community, eL Seed created an anamorphic piece that covers almost 50 buildings only visible from a certain point of the Moqattam mountain. The piece of art uses the words of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, a Coptic nishop from the thrid century: “Anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first.” The Zarayeb community welcomed eL Seed and his team like family.

“Art is not what is ending up in galleries,” Bowker ended his lecture by saying, “but what people do themselves and what people create”.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 22 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly