Saoud has curly and bushy hair, dark eyes and a curious smile that puckers when he laughs. Saoud has been drawing and painting since he was seven years old. He is now sixteen. When he was younger his drawings depicted cartoon characters and pencil portraits of his brother and sisters. Now his oil paintings portray the aftermath of war and his personal perspective on beauty and suffering.
All his paintings are dark.
One of Saoud’s paintings detail a story he had heard on television of a young Sunni boy that helped save the lives of drowning Shi’a victims in the Tigris River. For Saoud, the event illustrated the power and tenacity of Iraqi nationality and human relationship despite the rising sectarian divide between the Shi’a and Sunni sects. The painting shows the victims drowning, while government leaders, depicted as women with long, white hair watched on, unwilling to do anything to help the Iraqi people who are imprisoned in tombs stacked one on top of the other.
Saoud’s other paintings are equally sad and tragic. In one painting, he depicts Iraq as a baby but also as a bare and naked woman curled up in a fetal position, abandoned by her parents and left with no government, no freedom, and no democracy. Another painting is of a woman’s face painted blood red, sad and fragile, whose dark eyes face an unclear and uncertain future.
A month ago, Saoud finished a painting of his grandmother who died a year ago in Iraq. Saoud and his family could not be with her when she died. He painted a picture of her to remind him of the grandmother he loved so much. He tried to capture her expressions, but he also wanted to express the current life around her and around all Iraqis now living in Iraq. Her portrait is surrounded by small images – a chained pigeon, a little girl burned by the war, a prison, and the staircase they used to climb up and down at home. He also drew a chair, to represent the simplest things he and his family are now deprived of.
Saoud and his family live in the outskirts of Faisal, a suburb of Cairo. Every day, Saoud makes a ritual of walking into town with a red bucket he fills up with drinking water. They have no potable water at home. Saoud says he wishes he could fast and not have to drink water or eat food. And he could save the money they spend on water for other things he feels are more important.
Saoud’s father worked as bodyguard for Saddam Hussein’s brother-in-law. When Saddam Hussein murdered his brother-in-law, his life was also threatened. He immediately fled to Jordan with his family, where they were offered an opportunity to resettle in Australia. But they had to turn that down. Saoud’s grandfather proclaimed he would die if the family moved away. The family returned to Baghdad, this time to face a US occupation and an impending civil war, which made it all the more easy for different groups to settle old scores and for Saoud’s father to be a target.
Saoud and his family faced two attempts on their lives, both times while driving in their car, surrounded by people dressed in black. After the two incidents, Saoud drew a painting of a head checkered black and white. The white refers to peace and the black, to destruction. He used those two colors to also illustrate how Iraqis are now being played like a game of chess.
After the incident, Saoud’s family could not remain in Baghdad for long. Saoud and his family finally fled for Egypt in 2005, where they are now finding it difficult to live. Saoud’s father worked in a restaurant for a little while but after suffering two strokes, was forced to stay home. Neither he nor his wife are able to find work here in Cairo, where the unemployment rate is high and the competition to find work among local Egyptians is also fierce. The family is also unable to afford to send the children to school, as government schools are only open to Egyptian children.
Saoud spends most of his time attending workshops and volunteering as an assistant at Townhouse Gallery downtown. The gallery hosts works and performances by local artists but also has an outreach program for young Egyptian, Sudanese and Iraqi children. The program introduces and teaches art to young children but also aims to foster relationships between local Egyptians and the burgeoning Sudanese and Iraqi refugee communities.
But Saoud’s father does not approve of the direction Saoud’s life is going. When he was a young boy, he taught himself how to drive a car. He put a pillow on his seat to disguise his small figure. He was strong and tough and knew how to take care of himself. Saoud’s father wants him to work, to be a man, and to help support the family. Accustomed to a better life back in Iraq and to money and position working as a bodyguard under the Saddam regime, Saoud’s father is unable to accept his new, emasculated life, in which he does nothing but sit at home.
With pressure and tension escalating between Saoud and his father, Saoud tells us he may soon leave for Iraq, where, even caged and imprisoned, he is at least free from the tyranny of his father.
All his paintings are dark.
"I can’t express Iraq in a way…in a way…with happy colors. Or in a way with bright colors or flowers. You have noticed that all my paintings are without flowers. I didn’t even draw a bird that stands alone because I don’t feel there is freedom; there is democracy. No, there is only a prison. Even if I tried to draw a bird and I draw it very well, I draw it with chains. I don’t draw it as being free."
One of Saoud’s paintings detail a story he had heard on television of a young Sunni boy that helped save the lives of drowning Shi’a victims in the Tigris River. For Saoud, the event illustrated the power and tenacity of Iraqi nationality and human relationship despite the rising sectarian divide between the Shi’a and Sunni sects. The painting shows the victims drowning, while government leaders, depicted as women with long, white hair watched on, unwilling to do anything to help the Iraqi people who are imprisoned in tombs stacked one on top of the other.
Saoud’s other paintings are equally sad and tragic. In one painting, he depicts Iraq as a baby but also as a bare and naked woman curled up in a fetal position, abandoned by her parents and left with no government, no freedom, and no democracy. Another painting is of a woman’s face painted blood red, sad and fragile, whose dark eyes face an unclear and uncertain future.
A month ago, Saoud finished a painting of his grandmother who died a year ago in Iraq. Saoud and his family could not be with her when she died. He painted a picture of her to remind him of the grandmother he loved so much. He tried to capture her expressions, but he also wanted to express the current life around her and around all Iraqis now living in Iraq. Her portrait is surrounded by small images – a chained pigeon, a little girl burned by the war, a prison, and the staircase they used to climb up and down at home. He also drew a chair, to represent the simplest things he and his family are now deprived of.
Saoud and his family live in the outskirts of Faisal, a suburb of Cairo. Every day, Saoud makes a ritual of walking into town with a red bucket he fills up with drinking water. They have no potable water at home. Saoud says he wishes he could fast and not have to drink water or eat food. And he could save the money they spend on water for other things he feels are more important.
"I wish we could save the money that we buy water with and we can stop drinking water and even stop eating, so that we can see our future. But we won’t be able to live without water or without food. We have to eat and to drink and to walk
and we have to do everything."
and we have to do everything."
Saoud’s father worked as bodyguard for Saddam Hussein’s brother-in-law. When Saddam Hussein murdered his brother-in-law, his life was also threatened. He immediately fled to Jordan with his family, where they were offered an opportunity to resettle in Australia. But they had to turn that down. Saoud’s grandfather proclaimed he would die if the family moved away. The family returned to Baghdad, this time to face a US occupation and an impending civil war, which made it all the more easy for different groups to settle old scores and for Saoud’s father to be a target.
Saoud and his family faced two attempts on their lives, both times while driving in their car, surrounded by people dressed in black. After the two incidents, Saoud drew a painting of a head checkered black and white. The white refers to peace and the black, to destruction. He used those two colors to also illustrate how Iraqis are now being played like a game of chess.
After the incident, Saoud’s family could not remain in Baghdad for long. Saoud and his family finally fled for Egypt in 2005, where they are now finding it difficult to live. Saoud’s father worked in a restaurant for a little while but after suffering two strokes, was forced to stay home. Neither he nor his wife are able to find work here in Cairo, where the unemployment rate is high and the competition to find work among local Egyptians is also fierce. The family is also unable to afford to send the children to school, as government schools are only open to Egyptian children.
Saoud spends most of his time attending workshops and volunteering as an assistant at Townhouse Gallery downtown. The gallery hosts works and performances by local artists but also has an outreach program for young Egyptian, Sudanese and Iraqi children. The program introduces and teaches art to young children but also aims to foster relationships between local Egyptians and the burgeoning Sudanese and Iraqi refugee communities.
But Saoud’s father does not approve of the direction Saoud’s life is going. When he was a young boy, he taught himself how to drive a car. He put a pillow on his seat to disguise his small figure. He was strong and tough and knew how to take care of himself. Saoud’s father wants him to work, to be a man, and to help support the family. Accustomed to a better life back in Iraq and to money and position working as a bodyguard under the Saddam regime, Saoud’s father is unable to accept his new, emasculated life, in which he does nothing but sit at home.
With pressure and tension escalating between Saoud and his father, Saoud tells us he may soon leave for Iraq, where, even caged and imprisoned, he is at least free from the tyranny of his father.
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