L.A. Artist’s Project Near Giza Pyramids Is Suspended

Lita Albuquerque was all ready to sketch a field of stars in desert sands near the Giza pyramids. Then, rumors started that she was actually drawing the Jewish Star of David.

Now her project has been suspended, an indication of the tense relations between Egypt and Israel even though the two countries signed a peace accord 17 years ago.

Albuquerque, 50, of Los Angeles, had been planning the pyramid project for a year as the United States’ entry in the Sixth International Cairo Biennale, an art festival starting Sunday. She and 30 Egyptian art students were preparing to use 2.5 tons of a blue powdered pigment to chart 99 stars forming a honeycomb pattern on the sands. The temporary piece was to have measured 180 yards by 150 yards.

But a local surveyor cried foul when he was asked to plot circles in the desert sand, charging that Albuquerque intended to draw a Star of David. An author and historian joined the fray and urged authorities to stop Albuquerque and her team from going ahead.

The Culture Ministry ordered them to stop work Friday, before they could start the daylong process of drawing the pattern. They now await permission to begin again.

Cairo newspapers were full of the Star of David rumors, with headlines such as “A Suspect Artistic Project Halted Near the Pyramids” and “Rumor About Allowing Jewish Woman to Draw Star of David by Pyramids.”

Albuquerque--who is not Jewish--denied the allegations.

“I wanted to draw a field of stars with the pyramids in the horizon,” she said. “This has no indication of anything political or religious, of the Star of David or anything of the sort.”

Albuquerque, who teaches at the Art Center in Pasadena, said she was interested in a honeycomb because the bee is a symbol of one of the ancient Egyptian kingdoms. Her previous works have involved constellations and viewing Earth from outer space.

The desert work was not intended to last very long because strong fall winds would have scattered the blue pigment.

The artist had hoped it would last long enough for photographs to be taken to complement her installation at a Cairo gallery. On the walls of a room at the gallery, painted with the same blue pigment, is a poem about the color blue in English and Arabic.

Albuquerque’s work was selected by a 10-member committee of art experts and museum curators from among 12 proposals submitted for display at the Cairo Biennale more than one year ago.