Early in the semester, I’d had the idea of making work on and around the subject of the conflicts in the Middle East, in particular the west’s involvement in Syria and Iraq.
I thought about making a series of paintings that would depict the main ‘characters’ in the overall narrative that was being played out in the western media.
The lead roles- Obama, Putin, Assad etc. Then supporting cast- coalition soldiers and black clad Islamic State fighters, that have both come to serve as symbols of good and evil respectively. Finally, the extras- ordinary people who have experienced firsthand, these terrifying situations that have been brought about by this conflict. People who have suffered in the wars in Iraq and Syria and the people in Europe who have suffered, particularly the from the attacks in Paris.
I’d started to make a large painting of Barrack Obama. A large close up of his face, taken from a photograph found online. During the time that I was working on the painting, there was some footage on the news of Obama crying, whilst giving a speech on mass shootings in the U.S.
I found a video of the speech on YouTube and took several screenshots of when he appeared to be crying.
Although he seemed to be genuinely distressed in the footage, I couldn’t help but see the hypocrisy of the U.S. President mourning the deaths of American kids, while the U.S. is carrying out regular drone strikes in the Middle East that are killing innocent people, including children all the time.
