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Joseph El-Hourany Exhibition: The Joy of Carving Memories on Wood

Wooden sculptures depicting faces on display at Joseph El-Hourany's exhibition.
Wooden sculptures depicting faces on display at Joseph El-Hourany's exhibition.
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Joseph El-Hourany Exhibition: The Joy of Carving Memories on Wood

Wooden sculptures depicting faces on display at Joseph El-Hourany's exhibition.
Wooden sculptures depicting faces on display at Joseph El-Hourany's exhibition.

Woodcarving is one of the oldest and most ancient art forms. The variety of types and color of wood allow artists to create sculptures that directly reflect nature’s beauty. This kind of art employs a multitude of different wood types, such as ebony, boxwood with their bluish color, and jujube, known for its red color. Artists also often use walnut wood and forest trees that have beautiful veiny patterns.

Joseph El-Hourany is one of the few Lebanese artists to turn to wood to express his ideas. He is a university professor, an architect and holds postgraduate degrees (MA) in Philosophy and Musicology.

Hourany is displaying artwork he had created between 1995 and 2020 in an exhibition hosted by Beirut’s Saleh Barakat Gallery.

The exhibition includes unusual sculptures of faces and bodies without organs and vice versa. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Hourany said: “Whenever the sculpture contains compositional details, it loses its poetic feel. Hence, I had the difficult challenge of making an art exhibition based on breaking the rules of composition when highlighting the idea of each sculpture.”

Hourany’s exhibition is not intended to be a celebration of commercial artworks. Instead, he wants it to be a space for contemplation and intellectual provocation. “I do not usually improvise my sculptures, as I always make plans for my designs and then implement them. My sculptures are neither symbolic nor abstract, and my primary concern when designing them was to satisfy my aspirations and take this form of art to vast, unprecedented horizons.”

Hourany believes that it is very easy to please people through traditional, easy-to-understand works and difficult to appeal to them through unusual artistic experiences. He reckons that this created a challenge for him, saying: “I have always tried to steer away from superficial artworks that only serve as a piece of decor befitting a living room, so I sought an art form that doesn’t focus on aesthetics.”

Many people were drawn to the complexity of Hourany’s artwork at the exhibition. He commented: “There are people who found it hard to interpret my sculptures because they see them as complicated, but many were drawn to my artwork and went on to purchase them without hesitation, which was surprising given these uncertain times.”

Regarding the sculptures which allude to human organs that Hourany has carved, he said: “I am not a conventional artist, and I’m always on the lookout for new challenges. I presented the human guts, liver, kidney and heart in disjointed sculptures, which reflect their importance in a manner we cannot sense in real life. Some people did not find the way in which the sculptures were installed appealing, while others saw it as a healthy artistic expression that took their minds out of the conventional “

In addition to having held exhibitions in many countries and cities, like Canada and Boston, Hourany today is putting his sculptures on display at Art Dubai. He concluded: “It took me a long time to find my artistic niche. I chose to integrate my engineering ideas within an art form that combines both science and culture. For me, it has been a grueling process that resulted in about 1,000 wooden sculptures, of which I displayed nearly 100 today.”

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As Baboons Become Bolder, Cape Town Battles for Solutions

A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)
A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)
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As Baboons Become Bolder, Cape Town Battles for Solutions

A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)
A group of baboons move through the main shopping street of Simon's Town outside of Cape Town on October 31, 2024. (AFP)

On a sunny afternoon in Cape Town's seaside village of Simon's Town, three young chacma baboons cause a commotion, clambering on roofs, jumping between buildings and swinging on the gutters.

Enchanted tourists stop to photograph the troop crossing the road. Locals are less impressed: it's a daily scene in the charming village nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Table Mountain National Park.

About 500 chacma baboons -- among the largest monkey species and weighing up to 40 kilos (88 pounds) -- roam the peninsula south of Cape Town, says the South African National Biodiversity Institute.

And as human development pushes up the mountain into their natural habitat, the animals are increasingly entering plush properties to forage in gardens and take the pickings from the bins. Some manage to sneak into houses where they can wreak havoc.

Many locals are fond of the creatures, giving them pet names and following their daily adventures on social media.

But others are increasingly frustrated.

"They've become so bold now. They're more domesticated than they should be," said Duncan Low, 60, who runs an ice cream shop.

The intruders have even started raiding kitchens and grabbing food from plates in restaurants. "They're on a sugar and fast-food rush," Low said.

In 2021, the city put down a notorious alpha-male monkey who had terrorized residents with more than 40 raids for food in rubbish bins, from lawns and porches, sometimes entering homes while people were inside.

- Monkey management -

Tension between humans and baboons is "the highest it's ever been", said ecologist Justin O'Riain, who directs the Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa at the University of Cape Town.

A baboon on the edge of a wild and an urban area is "the most difficult animal in the world to manage", O'Riain said.

"They are strong, they can climb... and they can learn from each other: there's no landscape that they can't conquer."

As human settlement of the Cape has expanded, the baboons have been "pushed higher and higher up the mountain" where foraging conditions are harder, O'Riain added.

The lush gardens that people have built, with fruit trees and swimming pools, are tempting attractions.

The City of Cape Town, in partnership with park authorities, has for years run a program to manage the marauding monkeys that relies on teams of baboon monitors.

They employ a primarily non-lethal approach, O'Riain said.

However, some techniques, such as firing paintball guns to keep troops away or culling a particularly problematic animal, have come under fire.

Amid an increasingly emotional outcry, vociferous campaigner Baboon Matters announced court action against the city and parks authorities in May for failing to implement what it considers more acceptable control measures, such as baboon-proof fencing and bins.

Facing criticism and funding limits, the authorities said the baboon management program would be wound down by the end of the year as they investigate other "more sustainable urban solutions".

It will however remain in place through December -- a particularly busy month for tourists -- but with fewer rangers, it said.

"We're going to lose our first line of defense," O'Riain said, with more baboons already entering urban areas often at risk to their lives.

- Deaths highest in 10 years -

Thirty-three baboons were known to have died between July 2023 and June 2024, the highest number in 10 years, city authorities say.

Nearly half the deaths were caused by human factors, including shooting with pellet guns, collisions with vehicles and dog attacks.

Coexistence with baboons should come with "a degree of human compliance", starting with managing food waste, conservation activist Lynda Silk, head of the Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation group, said.

"We don't need to be in competition with our natural resources: there can be ways that we can manage our lifestyles to minimize the negative impacts," she said.

For O'Riain, the only viable solution to the baboon battle is to erect fencing in certain areas that is made up of electric wiring and underground mesh to prevent the animals from digging underneath.

A prototype installed 11 years ago had shown great success, with almost no animals entering the area, he said. A 2023 report already suggested where the fencing should be placed.

"Baboons can come and forage right up to the edge of the fence and no one will disturb them," said O'Riain.

"It's a completely peaceful interaction, a win-win for people and for baboons."