PRIZEWINNER
LEBANON
Dima Hajjar
Gadget-Groom 1999
acrylic on canvas 99.3 x 75.8 cm
Exhibition Catalogue No. 134

Dima Hajjar was born in 1968 and lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon. She studied fine art at the Lebanese American University. The painting is a wry comment on the superficiality of the ‘gadget’ society. A bride and bridegroom in traditional dress are shown posing as if for a formal picture. The bridegroom has a mobile phone around his neck, and a prominent gold watch. Their colour stands out against the pinkish purple hue of the picture. The bride, her veil trailing to the ground and her innocence suggested by her lighter colour, delicately holds a flower. The picture has a heavily worn texture, like a peeling panel painting enclosed in a battered frame. The couple’s features and clothes, and the grid backdrop for the scene, are selectively and minimally described by a wiry, scratched line.