65 x 50 cm – Not for Sale
This man has an innocent, child-like look to him, the face of a calm and optimistic man with only one thought going through his mind re-building his country.
When the light is added, it reveals the true face lying behind, the dictator who is destroying his country with his decisions and thoughts. With his madness for pursuing power, and without any thought to his own people. He went about with his rigorous killing and destruction with no consideration to the women and children losing their innocent fragile lives. No one was safe from his evil mind. Infants, the vulnerable and the sick or disabled, all were under his cruel annihilation.
The nails used represent the bombing barrels he uses to turn the country into ashes. They represent all the weaponry used to hammer down everyone standing in his way, from shelling, bombs to chemical weapons. He uses these weapons to kill and displace the population.
The string represents the slow suffocation used to besiege the people who came against him asking for freedom and equality. He used these strings to starve the people who survived the nailed weapons. In this way he is trying to eliminate any souls left seeking life.
As for the colours used, they represent the flags of the two key parties in the struggle. The flag of the Syrian regime can be seen in the reds, whites and blacks. Whereas the flag of the opposition is in black, white and green. The colours battle together and eventually, the people’s blood is the one that spills.
All art pieces are made from reclaimed wood signifying rebirth and the possibility for hope in the future. The wood used in this piece was retrieved from the surviving parts of a kitchen from a shelled home in rural Damascus.