CONFLICT ZONE
What began as a response to the ISIS led genocide of Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, has expanded to include the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict. This ongoing project looks at the devasting effects on the daily lives of others living amidst the chaos of war. It is an artistic response to overwhelming feelings of helplessness and empathy for those living through the conflicts.
Most of my printmaking practice involves painterly monotypes. For the Conflict Zone series, the photographic image is an integral part of the process. The daily bombardment of visuals that I see in the news and online of domestic spaces left as rubble from war or natural disasters becomes indiscernible and its location redundant. There is a risk of becoming desensitized to the realities of the visual information.
I combine cropped moments I see in the news with photos I have taken of chandeliers, to create a new form that is partially recognizable. The melded images are intended to invite one in closer, for a more intimate look. I am asking the viewer to look below the headlines to see the fragile state of the human condition.
Historical background of project
In 2017, while doing research for a project on immigration, I met Haider Elias, president and co-founder of Yazda.org, a global nonprofit advocating for Yazidis in Iraq. In 2018, I received a Community Foundation Grant to travel to Houston and create monotypes with the Yazidi groups in Houston and in London, printed with human rights advocate Nadia Murad. I presented the work in the exhibition Conflict Zone: SInjar to St. Helena in 2019. To expand the awareness, I arranged for a screening of the award winning documentary about Nadia Murad “On Her Shoulders” during the run of the exhibition.
The Yazidi monotypes were presented at Brookhaven College in Dallas, Texas as part of the annual Southern Graphics Council printmaking conference in 2019 and also featured at the stARTup Art Fair/ Houston. Both my paintings of Iraq and the first Conflict Zone photo based monorprints were featured in an exhibition titled Shifting Perspectives on Trauma hosted by The Perception Project at Castelli Art Space in Los Angeles in 2019.
