On this, she told Al-Fanar Media: “We are part of time movement, and the brightest spot in its movement comes from the details that are sometimes nothing but our contradictory human feelings. The repetition of movement is the hero, and the hope is to break the wheel, since despite its being fixed, it is just a moment in time.”
Early Experiments with Lasers
Khalil was born in Qalyubia, north of Cairo, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in art education from Helwan University in 1994. Later on, she got a master’s degree in laser sculpture” in 2000, and a Ph.D. in art education in 2006. Now, she is a professor of sculpture at her alma mater.
She told Al-Fanar Media: “When I started working with laser technologies, late in the 1990s, I was thinking of a way to employ science for the benefit of art. However, I faced resistance to my idea from scientific bodies and traditional art circles.”
Khalil attributes that rejection to the lack of “people who were willing to understand the possibilities offered by science to develop art”. She continued her adventure, however, in cooperation with experts at the National Institute of Laser Sciences. “At first, they also doubt the possibility of creating sculptures of fiber material, or leaking light from inside,” she added.
Since then, she has experimented with passing laser light through sculptural blocks to manipulate perspective and shadows. She also worked with holographic techniques.
Khalil was astonished at the excitement that surrounded “appearances” by Umm Kulthum, who died in 1975, at recent concerts through hologram technology. “The method has been in use for more than 70 years in some countries of the world,” she said. “This is a paradox that reveals the sad state of our technical lagging.”
Skepticism from Funders
Khalil’s own experiments with laser techniques were hindered by high costs. When she asked for financial support from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture’s Fine Arts sector she faced “great skepticism,” she said.