Review: Basim Magdy: The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings

What pervades Basim Magdy's artistic practice and his first United States survey exhibition on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA) is an exploration of time, space, and the universe that addresses humanity's collective failures and arguably imprudent aspirations. Magdy engages each of these broad themes through a nuanced use of language and a carefully constructed approach to layering and manipulating materials. As a result, his works allow for seemingly infinite possibilities of interpretation, much like the conceptions of utopia and science fiction that piqued his interest as a child. Magdy's use of bright colors and pop art sensibility are realized through his representation of images of mass media popular culture including cars, structures, spaceships, and other technologies. These images, when paired with their pessimistic titles, demonstrate one of the ways in which Magdy critiques humanity's simultaneous obsession with progress and avoidance in resolving or making sense of its own history. Titles such as Time Laughs Back at You Like a Sunken Ship and Every Decade Memory Poses as a Container Heavier than its Carrier exemplify Magdy's poetic and humorous approach to complicating narratives for viewers. Basim Magdy: The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings was curated by MCA Manilow Senior Curator Omar Kholeif. The exhibition features Magdy's work in several media, including paper with gouache, acrylic, spray paint, and collage, as well as photographs, installations, videos, and slides captured from Kodak carousel projectors. Unlike a traditional chronological survey, this exhibition features a significant display of twenty-three of Magdy's works on paper set salon-style in the center of a small portion of a bright pink wall, the titles of which can be read from a corresponding wall label that is placed at the lower left. Next to this arrangement is an installation entitled The Future of Your Head (2008), comprised of a standing two-way mirror sign with an illuminated text displayed in capital letters that reads: YOUR HEAD IS A SPARE PART IN OUR FACTORY OF PERFECTION. At the center of this first central gallery space is a low pedestal with copies of two different posters accumulated in piles; a small written text on the floor prompts viewers to leave the exhibition with one poster of their choice. While at first glance the two poster images appear nearly identical, the text is what separates the work and provides a choice for the participant. In each poster a man stands on top of a car, his arm outstretched holding a pole, at the top of which appears a mannequin hand continuing the diagonal extension of the body. Both posters read "KNOWING HE COULD DIE THE NEXT DAY, A MAN DESPERATELY TRIES TO TICKLE HEAVEN" but one adds "BUT HEAVEN DOESN'T LAUGH. INSTEAD, FROGS START FALLING FROM THE SKY." This work, much like the exhibition as a whole, encourages viewers to look carefully and consider Magdy's constructed fictions in part as social commentary. …