| If an artist produces
his art in favor of any government policy, either his or others,
he could be considered a puppet of that government, however,
any decision any government makes on policy, is the responsibility
of any artist to paint, sculpt etc. to show the effect of that
policy on people.
It was late April of 2003 and I had just returned
from Portugal, Spain and Morocco. The war in Iraq was in the
midst of heated combat. The news in Europe, which I saw on the
Al-Jazeera TV and in the newspapers, was heart breaking. The
pictures of civilians and children being bombed, was devastating.
It was much different than the news in the USA. On that night,
at about 1:30 am, I woke up from nightmare thoughts of these
events. What was going on? I put on the TV and I was watching
a program entitled “ Road to Baghdad”. I will never
forget what I saw that night. How the US soldiers were screaming
loudly, kicking the door of a poor residential house and entering
a man’s residence. The head of the household, obviously
an Arab, who couldn’t speak any English, appeared from
his poor quarters, fearing for his family’s life, trying
to tell the soldiers, pointing to his mouth, that they are eating,
but in reality, they were covering their heads with scarves
in order to come out (some Moslem religious women cover there
hair in front of strange men). Cultural crash! The US soldiers
didn’t speak Arabic, nor were they familiar with the Arab
culture, and the Arab family didn’t speak any English.
Seeing these terrifying looking aliens, heavily armed strangers,
invading their house and shouting, “ Come on out, hands
up.”
A line of family, starting from the father, his wife, oldest
son (maybe 13 years old), daughter and her 2 little brothers
came out of their living quarters, kneeling down in the yard
outside their residence with their hands up.
I have never seen a man fear so much for his family. His wife’s
face, terrified for her children. The two little boys were in
the state of confusion and fear, the older son observing the
whole situation. The young girl’s face had so much fear
that silent tears were covering her beautiful eyes, while her
lips and her childish cheeks were quivering.
Fortunately, the soldiers realized their awful act and, as I
recall, even the TV broadcaster said, “I didn’t
like that at all”, repeating it several times.
That night was one of the most awful memories I have; I’m
thinking how men are the cruelest, most vicious animals to each
other.
It took me almost a year to compose the painting titled Invasion.
Showing human fears, without showing the invaders, showing family
unity and the road of consequence, is what I tried to depict.
What is the effect of these horrific actions on this family?
What are the psychological ramifications on these children in
the near future? Maybe the old man has passed the age of revenge,
the mother tries only to protect her children, the two boys
were too young to really digest everything, the young girl will
always be fearful of men and the older son (13 years old?) who
observed everything from the distance, will always remember
late April of 2003 when his country and his father’s house
were invaded.
reza karimi June 2004
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