Wafaa Bilal is assistant Arts Professor in the department of Photography and Imaging at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. His works span from paintings and drawings he did in his native Iraq through to performances such as Domestic Tension, Virtual Jihadi and his latest work ....And Counting. In his memoir Shoot An Iraqi, he recounts how his early works were often aimed against the oppression of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime and the violence that plagued Iraq both from the outside- the Iran/Iraq war, gulf wars 1 & 2- and the internecine violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims as well as violence against opponents to the regime which in turn exploited these conflicts to maintain its grip on political power. Bilal's art works, often critical of the Iraqi government eventually caused a reaction from the state that forced Bilal to flee for his life first to a Saudi refugee camp, then eventually to the United States, where he continued his studies of art.
Bilal was born in Kufa, Iraq in 1966. The third of 7 childrenCK, he attended Baghdad university, majoring in Geology although his efforts were primarily focused on painting. These paintings were often critical of the Baathist regime, and Bilal would hide them, for example, by rolling up the canvasses and storing them within hollow bedposts(1). Several of the shows he put on during that period were closed by the regimes security apparatus(2). Paintings as innocuous, in the Canadian context, as portraying people living in poverty, were seen as anti-government, with some of them being seized(3).
Bilal publicly refused to volunteer for military service with the threat of an American lead coalition looming as a result of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, in 1991( p.68) After leaving Bagdad University, lest he "disappear" as other dissident students had, Bilal fled Iraq, eventually being interned at a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia. There he attempted to continue painting, despite the declining conditions and threats of rape and abuse at the hands of the Saudi guards. He and his brother, Alaa were granted refugee status, arriving in the United States in September, 1992. He would subsequently enroll in the school of Arts at the University of New Mexico.
Bilal's artistic production after leaving Iraq dealt with such themes as violence and dehumanisation as in his Honours exhibit Sorrow of Baghdad. This gallery installation used the sounds of a baby crying from within a coffin, a be-suited pig laughing at short videos and a room with the faces of Iraqis trapped in a space, with the only exit a window looking out onto a battlefield.( ) His subsequent works include The Absinthe Drinker(200TK), which would electronically insert the gallery spectator into the digital frame, causing the central figure to become animated and react to the movement of the spectator. This general approach would be repeated in The Bar of the Follie Bergeres(200TK), and One Chair(200TK). In each case, the work makes a direct reference to an antecedent art work; those on the impressionists, in the first two cases, and to DaVinci's The last Supper, in the case of one chair. All of them allow the visitor/spectator to interact with the work, and in the case of The Bar of the Follie Bergeres have a presence with in the frame. This would become even more actualised in Domestic Tensions.
1966 Born, Kufa , Iraq p.5
1968 Ba’ath party stages coup, taking power in Iraq p.34
1979 Age 13 Bilal makes a stand against his Father’s violent temper and increasingly violent behavior. When his father shatters a plate over Bilal’s head, he seizes a shard a chases his father out of the house and locks him out. p.23
1979 Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq
September 1980 Iraq invades Iran, ostensibly as a result of an Iranian assassination attempt on foreign Minister Aziz. Iraq moves to seize oil rich areas, strategic canals and supress the spread of the shiite Islamic revolution from Iran to the Shiite majority in Iraq.p.39
August 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait
Bilal publicly refuses to volunteer for military service- leaves University and
flees repercussions. p.68
January 1991- American forces begin bombing campaign against cities and military in Iraq
February 1991- American ground forces invade Kuwait and attack Iraqi troops. Iraqi troops withdraw from Kuwait after 100hour campaign.
Kurds and Shiites rebel against Sadaam’s rule. The baathist regime brutally supressed the rebels with helicopters, artillery and ground troops (fixed-wing aircraft were grounded by American decree)
Bilal travels to the Kuwait border to shelter in refugee camp at Safwan. He fled the regime’s pogrom against dissidents and the actual military force used against perceived rebel communities p.99-100
1991 Arrives in refugee camp.p. Experience of seeing of abuse, rape and murder by Saudi guards which leads to uprising in spring 1992.p.123 & 135
September, 1992 Leaves Saudi Arabia p.141
Arrives in America
Enrolls in UofNM p.
Honours thesis was interactive exhibit p
“Absinthe Drinker” wins award from New Mexico museum of Art
Iraq invades Kuwait
1999 Bilal graduates from University of New Mexico with BFA.p.
US and Coalition invade Iraq
2003 Graduated with an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
December 2003 Sadaam is captured by US forces in Iraq.
2004 Brother, Haji killed in American airstrike. His father dies three months later,
from grief.p.125
Bilal's artistic production after leaving Iraq dealt with such themes as violence and dehumanisation as in his Honours exhibit Sorrow of Baghdad. p.
Writing about Bilal's personal history and that of Iraq which is intertwined with it is grueling. The brutality on all levels is highly disturbing, as is the collusion with western powers in such atrocities as the Halabja massacre of 1988. I will leave the editing for tomorrow.
1. Bilal & Lyderson p. 64
2. ibid p. 64
3. ibid p. 65
tk http://www.wafaabilal.com/html/sorrowBaghdad.html
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