Detroit Art Exhibit Brings Home Horrors of Syrian Civil War

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posted on: Mar 19, 2014

In the back of a historic church near Comerica Park in Detroit, bloodied skulls are on display in an art exhibition about Syria’s suffering.

One juts from the wall, appearing to shriek in pain after a chemical attack.

Across the room, piles of them float on driftwood floating on a river of blood under a dark-blue sky.

And next to it, in a piece titled “Lost Humanity,” skulls are scattered along with dislocated skeletons against streaks of black and white that look like ghosts.

The mixed-media exhibit is a graphic depiction by West Bloomfield artist Ilham Mahfouz of the nightmares that Syria has seen since the conflict started three years ago today. Called “Syria: Crisis and Hope,” the exhibit in the gallery at Central United Methodist Church contains more than 50 original artworks.

Today, the church’s gallery will host a public forum with three Syrian-American medical doctors who will give their perspectives on the crisis that has led to more than 140,000 deaths, and 2.5 million refugees, the worst displacement of people globally in recent years.

One of the two oldest Protestant congregations in metro Detroit, Central United emphasizes peace and justice in its theology. And so it was a perfect spot for Mahfouz’s message.

“In my artwork, you will see abstract depictions of the horrors of war,” said Mahfouz, 57, a native of Syria. “Syria and its people are going through the hardest of times right now. Everywhere you look, there are orphans, widows and children who have lost their families and homes.”

Mahfouz has relatives in Syria who have lost homes to bombardment, she said. One died of a bleeding ulcer that could have easily been treated by medicine, which was unavailable.

The war is “killing humanity, killing people, killing culture,” she said. “It affects you psychologically.”

The artworks range from paintings to reliefs to ceramic sculptures, and six birds caged in golden-colored mesh nets that dangle from the ceiling, symbolizing the trapped Syrian people. On the second floor, a dozen skulls are half-buried in sand around four columns that look like bombed out parts of buildings.

Mahfouz graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in painting and ceramics, and art history. In addition to her artwork, which has been on display in museums in Michigan and Holland, she teaches Arabic at the University of Detroit Mercy and art at Pontiac Creative Art Center.

The last three years have been difficult for Mahfouz, as they have been for many of Michigan’s 10,000 Syrian Americans. She was in Syria in 2010 before the war started, and recalled the nice greenery, historic sites and relaxed atmosphere.

“That’s all gone now,” she said.

Mahfouz hopes her exhibit can help educate the public about what’s happening in Syria and spur them to help. She will donate half of the money that people pay for her artwork to two groups working to help victims, the Syrian-American Medical Society and Southfield-based charity Life for Relief and Development.

“The silence of the whole world is like an approval of this death,” she said. “The whole world is just sitting and watching.”

Despite the tragedies, Mahfouz and her artwork show hope. There are several large acrylic paintings with bright colors spotted with windows and ladders that are symbolic of the means by which the people can escape.

“World peace is our goal,” reads one painting.

Mahfouz said: “When we destroy one part of the human family, we destroy all of humanity.”

Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press

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