Sumayyah Samaha Explores Issues of War and Occupation
By Maymanah Farhat

In recent years, artist Sumayyah Samaha has been creating works that communicate the catastrophic nature of current Middle Eastern conflicts. In works such as Palestinian Fence, Fifth Crusade, and Mausoleums Samaha mourns the loss of life and destruction of homelands that have resulted from the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the American occupation of Iraq.

Using a variety of media- including watercolor, ceramic, charcoal, monoprints and thread, Samaha strives to captures the adversities of war. When asked why she chose to work with such media Samaha explained, “I cannot say it was too conscious a decision. In retrospect I realized that I needed fragile media to portray a fragile situation, both paper and clay are fragile media. I think it was just an instinctive decision”. With the use of such material, the viewer is initially drawn into the delicate nature of her work. Upon closer examination one is almost taken aback by the realization that such fragile material can convey atrocities of war, destruction and death. Her beautiful forms that articulate violent realities enthrall the viewer. Samaha’s work conveys the vulnerability of humanity caught in a state ruin.

Samaha’s exploration of war and occupation was first prompted by television images she saw during a trip to her native Lebanon in the spring of 2001. Images showing the violence executed by the Israeli Defense Force in the West Bank prompted her to begin creating small ceramic mausoleums and urns in tribute to the Palestinian children killed by the IDF. The small tributes stand no higher than eight inches tall and are painted with solemn shades of brown and black that instantly conjure up feelings of grievance. Her proficient creation of the tributes eventually lead to her series of ceramic objects entitled Mausoleums. With Mausoleums 2001, Samaha reminds the viewer of the most tragic aspect of war, the abrupt end of innocent lives and how quickly they are forgotten. When asked what lead her to begin creating such tributes she replied, “Sadness. It felt to me like the world has turned its deaf ear to their plight. I felt a need to honor them. I was asked many times ’why not all the oppressed children in the world?’ They pain me too but Palestinian children happen to be part of me”.

The Palestinian issue has been a part of Samaha’s life since she was a child. Her parents lived in Jerusalem where her father worked as an architect and had many Palestinian friends who fled to Lebanon in 1948 including her uncle’s family. Many other friends from her childhood had similar stories of what Samaha has described as “a painful displacement”. Such a connection lead to her recent participation in antiwar events and exhibits such as Why War, Why Dubya?, WAR ART, Defiance and War Culture. The anger she feels towards the situation in the Middle East has driven her to search for opportunities through which she can express her frustrations publicly.

In Palestinian Fence 2003-2004, Samaha created a series of monoprints upon which she quoted classical and contemporary Arab poets such as Abu Firas al-Hamdani, Etel Adnan and Suhair Hamad. She then sewed each print together to evoke “images of mothers, grandmothers, sisters and wives” waiting anxiously for relief. The symbolic wall serves as an on-going project through which she voices her support of the Palestinian people and protests the 400-mile wall being built on Palestinian land. In an artist’s statement that accompanies the piece Samaha wrote, “This work tries to convey the humanity of a people with a rich history and a culture that continues to thrive despite the harrowing conditions under which they live. They are writing poetry, making music and singing songs about love and pain and hope”. Palestinian Fence, functions as a testimony to the survival of Palestinian culture while capturing the resilient spirit of protests and graffiti that have been seen along the wall since its construction. In addition, the colors of Samaha’s monoprints are bold while her brushstrokes are almost violent in nature. The disastrous consequences of the wall and its further perpetuation of oppression are communicated in the vehement lines scattered across the sewn prints.

With Fifth Crusade 2003, Samaha continued her use of ceramic to create a physical representation of the American Invasion of Iraq. The piece stands as a model of a castle tower with various sizes of nails protruding from its windows and sides. It is painted with similar somber colors of Mausoleums and appears almost urn like. Instantly the viewer is intrigued by the curiousness of such sharp objects intruding upon his/her glance of the beautifully shaped ceramic form. The viewer’s gaze is punctured by the powerful symbolism of the nails. In regards to her inspiration for Fifth Crusade, Samaha recalled, “The first word that President George Bush uttered to describe the war was “crusade”. It was then forgotten by the media but it stayed in my system. The shape of the ceramic piece is like a miniature castle of the Crusades and the nails are about violence, about the cluster bombs.”

Through such works as Mausoleums, Palestinian Fence and Fifth Crusade, Samaha forces the public to take an introspective look into issues that can no longer be ignored. While we mourn through her work, we are also inspired to confront the ugliness of war.

For more information visit www.sumayyahs.com.
Ms. Farhat can be contacted at sccheeto@yahoo.com