Unusual Artwork from Iraq

Since the invasion of Iraq, there has been a great cultural thirst in the rest of the world to view Iraqi artwork. So far much of this has had to do with typical war art, including various photographs, generally of a soldier in his day to day life, or of civilians in the same. There have, however, been a number of unusual art pieces that have been made public or simply made as a result of this invasion. Some of these pieces are showcased in a gallery, though their matter is unusual, while others are in less gallery-oriented medias.

1. Signs of destruction

Some of the most moving artwork from Iraq right now is that having to do with the destruction of parts of the country, and which showcases twisted remnants of this destruction. One gallery in Baghdad is currently holding an exhibition of sculptures made from the wrecked remnants of war materials. These sculptures include a flower fashioned from a machine gun barrel lost by a soldier, while a sculpture of fish is made from bullet casings. In contrast to much of the war art relating to Iraq right now, this gallery and its artwork does not showcase the invasion, or any particular soldier; instead the characters represented among the abstract images include Atlas and Nefertiti, and are meant to promote love and peace. In contrast, another traveling gallery has been toting around a car destroyed by a suicide bombing to cities worldwide, attempting to suggest the pain suffered by both civilians and the average soldier stationed in Iraq.

2. Saddam’s personal gallery

There is a somewhat well known photograph making its way around currently that depicts an American soldier standing in front of a fairly raunchy picture of a woman and a man, both mostly naked and struggling with some sort of bindings, in front of a strange beast. This picture, actually, was taken in front of Saddam Hussein’s personal gallery in his house. By all reports, his personal gallery was actually loaded with this style of painting that appear to have been taken from the cover of “bodice-ripper” harlequin romance novels. In fact, as was later revealed, the soldier in the gallery was actually standing in front of the oil painting done by American painter Rowena for the romance novel by “Shadows Out of Hell”, and was not the only painting in the gallery that actually was from one of these such novels, as shown in photographs taken by another soldier. In fact, a number of worldwide sources have unanimously described the taste of this gallery as absolute dreck.

3. Student films

Despite the interruptions of war and the suspicions of the odd soldier or civilian, one group of students in Iraq has enrolled in a free film school where the students look to make films detailing their personal experiences. Unlike many of the documentaries that have come out so far, these do not follow around a soldier or diplomat, enter the Green Zone or go inside army bases. Instead, these documentaries interview civilians and showcase the day-to-day life of a real civilian in Baghdad, on the streets of the dangerous parts of the city, and show the rest of the world not the life of the soldier that is so often portrayed, but the average life of real civilians.