LAMISE MOUKYED-PRINTMAKER

 

Relativity 

 

In 2011, a civil war began in Syria between the Alawite and Sunni people due to their struggles for democracy. The ruler in Syria is Bashar Al Assad, an Alawite, whose family has been dictating in Syria for over 40 years. They began rebelling against Bashar Al Assad and his followers in order to topple his reign in power. The Christians, along with other Syrian people, are stuck in the middle of this civil war with nowhere to go. This civil uprising has caused slaughter, bombing, and chemically gassing innocent civilians in the streets and in their homes. The people of Syria want peace but during this rebellion 1.5 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries while almost 150,000 Syrians have died in the process. My father, Nihad, was born in Syria and the family we have left there are stuck in the middle of this war. The top floor of the condominium that my father and his family grew up in has been bombed and at this moment there are two people left in that building, my Aunt Lamise along with another women. Contacting my family in Syria has not been easy. Most times calls cannot get through and when they do you can hear the bombings in the background.

         

My father and his family grew up in Aleppo Syria when it was a peaceful place. My art uses screenprint and found windows in order to show the contrast of the past and present state of Syria. The screenprints on the window glass symbolize the act of looking through the past and seeing the present state of Syria. The background prints hung behind the windows were created using photomechanical reproduction. Using found images of present day Aleppo Syria, I deconstructed the images and collaged them together with various references to war.  The images on the glass display faded pictures of my father and his family in Syria when it was in a better state. This civil war has caused many unnecessary deaths and to show this, I screenprinted onto glass and use the transparency of it along with lighting to create shadows to emphasize the death toll and the uncertainty of my families future. After months of using and searching for images of the current state of Syria in my art it has made the war even more of a reality to me. While speaking with my father and collecting family photographs to use along with the devastating images I found, I worry more because of the relativity it holds in my life.