Artist of the Iraq war reflects the pain of the trauma

Baghdad - Iraqi artists use to try their work, the crisis since the American invasion of 2003, address, and shows that they produce a deep anger at their country the trauma and uncertainty about their future. You have much to discuss: a regime change, foreign occupation, insurgency, sectarian killings, and now the prospect of a divided nation by the Americans left unprepared in the hands of politicians unpopular security forces and a fragile democracy. The ambivalence is clear. Most artists want Saddam Hussein's unfortunate, but not to return one day to overthrow his government. They are grateful that America insult them away from his tyranny, but she, like a foreign occupying power. The Shiite majority, the justice to say in their empowerment post-Saddam, after decades of oppression, but that will ruin their political leaders the country. "The Iraqi people are victims of anything and everything," says Fadel Saddam, who directs short films. "They are victims of both the domination and foreign occupation."> ___ Muayad Muhsin is the ventilation during painting. "What we need in Iraq is a rule that separates the tyranny of Saddam, but who fights oppression and corruption and champion of the poor," he barked at one of several explosions of a reporter The Associated Press he was working on the latest canvas. It was another of the too-frequent 110 ° days, when all the power and the fans, and air conditioning session useless. Muhsin is locked, barren apartment was covered with dust of the day before the sandstorm "Muhsin and stocky, short pants and a T-shirt several times, wiped the sweat from his face. The heat is merciless, included in his work. On the A reverse painting is written: "Painted in 48 degree Celsius in the shade (118 degrees Fahrenheit), while the power is always in the summer of Iraq. "Like many Iraqis, the 47-year-old Muhsin is full of anger and betrayal. He makes everything and everyone for current situation in Iraq. The latest work shows a man who turns next to a desolate road, until they disappeared in a fire, Sunset Orange apocalyptic. The man without a head, running his left hand plays an oud, Eastern lute as an instrument of the East rather in the Iraqi culture. Instead of leading man is a traffic light. "He screams, as long as we are still, as the street lights on deserted roads? Muhsin said. "The setting sun gives the impression that the end of the world, the end of a conflict, a horizon of new promises, but not necessarily good." Muhsin poses other paintings from a shop. It also shows a man without a head - "The head represents rationality, but we Iraqis are beheaded because of our bigotry," said Mohsen - standing by a railroad, which ends abruptly behind him. His body is cracking, as if about to collapse. In the background are the famous ruins of Babylon. "Before the Americans marched in, we had Saddam and his Baath Party. Now we have Saddam Hussein's Baath party more," said Mohsen. His next book, he says, President Barack Obama will be. It will represent Shooting Hoops. The tire is of a wall exposed to the winged bull of Assyria mythology. The Statue of Liberty in the background, with his back against the leaders of the United States. "On ___ 30, Omar al-Saray already a winner Poets Prize, a literary critic, and published popular college professor and president of the prestigious Society of Poets Baghdad, Iraq. But no ed by these distinctions Broad_Band it could help if the Shiites and Sunnis against each other in with deadly force in Baghdad 2006 and 2007 t urned. Like hundreds of thousands of people who feared for their lives, al-Saray fled the country, traveling to Syria and Lebanon for four months in 2006 after Shiite militants suspected of a threatening letter was at her door. The note has been burdened by a bullet, leaving a common signal militants quickly or die. Ironically, Al-Saray a Shiite, but secular. The activists claimed that he was a Sunni, because her first name, Omar, is rarely mentioned in the Shiite families, their children. This is the name of the Prophet Muhammad, the seventh century successor, the revered, though by Sunnis, is reviled by many Shiites. "The sectarian violence has divided the city into cantons and the man's name has become a problem," said Al-Saray, mourning past borders Baghdad, where most sectarian religious tolerance. The blood-soaked days of sectarian violence "height in the years 2006-2007 are gone, and al-Saray on security in Baghdad now. His office is equipped with beverage cans, empty water bottles and ashtrays littered crowded with a poetry reading late into the night two nights ago, an event that would have been impossible two or three years ago, when many are afraid to leave their homes. However, the young poet less than satisfied with the state of his country. "After the fall of Saddam's regime, is the degree of freedom has been extended but we were shocked and disappointed when we found out they were wrong freedoms, "he said." The future is frightening. The Americans left after they have destroyed a lot. They have never solved anything. You have occupied, but never gave us the safety of the shore. "Al-Saray 2005 poem" locks the steps of the misery, speaks of his grief over his nation: Alo rs, God, in the name of the war, we pray and recite the names of your neglected, we know that is not an oasis of peace to open even later, and that our dreams are locked, we have the death, that we have of death, we know what it explodes and kills. "___ Kareem Abdul-Khalil has won international recognition for May 2004, when he issued an alabaster statue of a crouching man naked hands behind his back and his head covered with a hood attached. It came just a week were remarkably similar after photos show abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison western outskirts of Baghdad. Khalil said he based his sculpture on stories heard he had of former detainees of Abu Ghraib, before the scandal was released broke. Six years later, continue to Khalil Abu Ghraib inspiration and his deep dislike of the American military presence in Iraq. A statue depicts a woman flanked recently by two men. All three paper bags have on their heads, hoods reminiscent of prisoners used by American guards. One of the men put a protective hand on the Shoulder. The other man is groping her thighs. "The second man, a symbol of evil," said Khalil. How many Iraqi artists, Khalil regrets toppling Saddam, not for the love of the dictator, but because of the anarchy that followed. The Most disturbing sculpture depicts a man to rape a woman. Two of the knee, the woman struggling to free themselves, while the man holds his hands rub her naked breasts. "The woman and the rape of Iraq is the U.S. occupation" said Khalil. "Saddam was no angel, but he was the head of a regime which had functioning institutions," he said. "We thought that those who come after him will be better, but it never happened. "