From Trump To Assad: Syrian Artist Reimagines World Leaders As Vulnerable Refugees
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Jun, 2017 01:47 PM
A Syrian refugee artist has spent 19 months creating a series of paintings in his Brussels studio showing world leaders as displaced or disenfranchised people and is showcasing them in a Dubai gallery.
Abdalla Al Omari’s “The Vulnerability Series” includes paintings of US President Donald Trump as a bedraggled refugee with a sleeping child in his arms, Russian President Vladimir Putin as a beggar, as well as former British Prime Minister David Cameron and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“My aim somehow shifted from an expression of anger to a more vivid desire of disarming these figures, (to) picture them outside their positions of power”, Omari told Al Jazeera.
Omari started painting in Damascus shortly after the start of the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. He fled and was granted asylum in Belgium.
Gallery visitor Sami Azraq said the portraits were a unique take on the refugee crisis.
“I think it’s an interesting way or it’s a nicer way to look at the problem rather than our usual news or social media or other outlets,” he said.
From a large, wall-sized canvas, five women peer out. Their hollow eyes pass no judgment and their hands, busy with interlocking threads, suggest their frightening impersonality as they embroider the fates of men. In the background, their shadows offer graceful support.
ISIS spokesperson Abu Hasan al-Muhajir called him an Arabic term that means an "idiot", saying the US President does not know anything about Islam, NBC News reported.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says the Mayors' Council appreciates recent federal and provincial investments of $4.4 billion, but wants funding for its entire 10-year plan for transit improvements.
Madhukar Reddy Gudur, a 27-year-old software engineer from Bhongir in Yadadri district of Telangana State, ended his life in Seattle, United States. Reddy is said to have hanged himself to death in his house, reports reaching the family said.
