Images of Iraqi Prisoners Used in Art

[AP / HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The crouching man is naked, his hands
tied and his head covered with a hood. The alabaster sculpture on
display at a Baghdad gallery bears a striking resemblance to some of
the shocking photographs that emerged last week of Iraqi prisoners
abused by their American guards at the Abu Ghraib prison.
But the 15-inch sculpture -- with words "We are living
American democracy" inscribed on its base -- was fashioned two months
ago.
"We knew what went on at Abu Ghraib," Abdul-Kareem Khalil,
the artist, said Saturday. "The pictures did not surprise me."
The nature of America's occupation of Iraq -- which many
Iraqis increasingly perceive as intolerable -- is finding its way to
the local art scene.
Jubilation over last year's collapse of Saddam Hussein's
regime has dissipated, replaced by terrorist attacks, an
unprecedented rise in violent crime, inadequate public services and
a foreign occupation force that many Iraqis consider heavy-handed
and scornful of Iraqi traditions.
Photos of smiling U.S. soldiers -- male and female --
mistreating Iraqi prisoners only add to the sense of powerlessness
among people subjected to house raids, searches, checkpoints, barbed
wire, detention of women.
At the Hewar, or Dialogue, art gallery where Khalil's works
are on display, owner Qasim al-Sabti recently invited artists to
write or paint their impressions of the occupation on a 6 1/2-foot
by 10-foot rectangular piece of wood in the gallery's garden.
About 40 artists and writers took up his offer. One painted
an American eagle with feathers that look like rockets.
"You liberated us. Ok. Thank you! Go home," someone wrote in
English.
"America is the plague," another one wrote.
"We are not strangers to what the U.S. Army does," said
Khalil, standing next to the statue of the naked man and two other
alabaster sculptures also inspired by the occupation. "Our dignity
cannot endure this humiliation. Anyone detained by the Americans is
ready to join the resistance upon his release."
Al-Sharqiyah, one of several satellite TV channels that have
sprung up in Iraq over the past year, has been broadcasting ads for
a sitcom about life under U.S. occupation that will air soon.
Some of the scenes ridicule American soldiers, focusing on
their ignorance of local culture or their zeal in searching for
insurgents and weapons.
Khalil, 44, is angry about the U.S. occupation and what he
said are accounts given to him over the months by Iraqis who had
been released from Abu Ghraib.
One of his works depicts a muscular man stripped down to his
underwear, his head concealed by a pyramid-shaped cover reminiscent
of the hoods that American soldiers routinely used to blindfold
detainees until the practice was ordered halted this month.
A third sculpture depicts a man whose chest resembles a
stone tablet divided into nine squares. Each square records the
artist's perception of one aspect of the occupation.
"The American army surrounds Fallujah, kills women and
children," reads an engraving, alluding to the siege last month by
U.S. Marines of a rebellious Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad.
"They raid homes, arrest women and steal," reads another
inscription.
Soon after U.S. forces captured Baghdad in April 2003,
Khalil began work on a sculpture of a man raping a woman that he
said symbolized the occupation of the Muslim nation. The sculpture
has been finished but was not on display Saturday.
Another sculpture is a bronze image of an American Marine.
"He is armed to the teeth and has a massive body," Khalil
said. "But his head is small to make him look empty."