From the diary of a roamer
From The Diary of a Roamer is a long-term project (2012
to 2015).
In my project, I am weaving the myth of my time and my place, I considered myself as a roamer in my own life, a traveler in my isolated locked place where I draw my visual witness through these figures to archive my observation about myself and the people in Damascus.
In my project, I engaged my artistic practices as a way and means of living, surviving and articulating my own reality.
This project is including different works:
- 366 Days of 2012
- Nor Human, Neither Stone
- Seems Offbeat, Our Daily Life
- Post-Thousand and One Nights
- Be my witness
- Portrait of 2015
366 days of 2012
Ink pen on paper, 30x21cm, 2012
366 Days Of 2012 is a diary and a witness account.
It consists of 366 drawings of magical, fantastical and disturbing figures, one drawing made about each day in Syria during the year of 2012.
Nor Human, Neither Stone
Video, duration: 3.25 Min, 2014
In the recent times, during my walk on the street of Damascus, I see repeated scenes of people falling down, people of different ages and from different social levels, elderly or young, woman or man, walking alone or with their families. They all share the same scene of fall down for different reasons andm different way but conduct the same meaning.
I look to their tired faces and I don´t see the feelings of shame or discomfort. after their tumble down.They are indifferent to their weakness, full of sadness and anger, they share the same feelings of the pedestrians who just look to the fallen and continue their oppressed, exhausted walk. Does everyone believe that falling down is the regular scene in our city where human and stone collapse.
Seems Offbeat, Our Daily Life
Auction, Ink pen on paper, 23x30 cm, 2014
I used to hang around, walking in the streets of Damascus, looking to the city, listening to the people, speak with the drivers, observing the small details of the daily life of the people who try to adjust themselves with unusual life, and finally, try to get inspired to create images about small details in their/our daily life.
Post-Thousand and One Nights
detail
Through my work, I create mythological deformed figures inspired from my daily life where legends and heroic story no longer exist and people only have distorted memories of their current life – stories about survival, sometimes living by means of cheating, deceiving and hating. They swarm to create groups but do not get to know each other. You might see a son hitting his father, someone stealing from his brothers, and others assaulting poor, neglecting an old woman or showing no mercy to a child... nowadays, my city seems strange to me, as if I never lived in it.
Dream of long night, Ink pen on paper, 70x100 cm, 2015
Swarm, Ink pen on paper, 70x100 cm, 2015
Plague, Ink pen on paper, 70x100 cm, 2015
In The Eid`s Night 2014, Ink pen on paper, 70x100 cm, 2014
Be my witness
Stamp, 2015
I transmit to you the testimony of this malignant ugly fact. You will
stigmatize your white paper and retain it, as a document talk about
distorted time.
Portrait of 2015
Ink pen on paper, 8x8cm, 2015
In 2015, they city and the people have the same similarity for me. They are all deformed, poor and miserable.
These portraits represent some specific faces in 2015 as they represent the year.