Return of the Martyrs III

The City, the River and the Minarets

Tigris and Euphrates

Ethnic Cleansing

WAFER SHAYOTA: THE WAR YEARS
By Maymanah Farhat

In Wafer Shayota’s paintings perspective is no longer confined to linear planes; multiple dimensions overlie where sky and land converge, with little distinction of spatial definitions. Several realities occupy the same space. An unrecognizable world becomes the juncture for an intentional attack on the senses. Amidst chaos and near total destruction, anthropomorphic figures are shown in mid-flight. His representations give way to multifarious narratives that speak of both the fragility and brutality of humanity. The damage of such a world is irreversible, leaving little room for resolution.

During the 1980s and 90s, several international political conflicts affected Shayota’s work. In Return of the Martyrs, a series of three large scaled paintings that first explored the tragedy of the Iran-Iraq war but ended with a surreal scene that was produced with the first Palestinian Intifada in mind, Shayota captures the aftershocks of war through the journeys of the deceased. The paintings that comprise the Return of the Martyrs series are as abstract in visual description as they are in subject.

In Return of the Martyrs III, 1989, a funeral procession is depicted, as a community of people, animals and mythical figures circle those that carry the martyr’s body. Pockets of scenes are scattered throughout the composition, so that the single narrative is comprised of numerous vignettes. The rendering of these narrative cells is done through several perspectives so that in one instance the viewer is confronted by the approaching of the funeral procession, while in another these same figures are illustrated as though the viewer is looking at them from above, so that he/she is taken out of the scene and placed into the role of an outside observer. Simultaneously, other figures within the composition (such as a dog in the upper portion of the painting) appear to be looking up at the funeral procession, so that several perspectives layer the viewer’s engagement in the piece.

While the funeral procession functions as the focal point of the Return of the Martyrs III, with its movement comes the instability of its surroundings and the undermining of the viewer’s perspective. As sorrow filled mourners appear to travel through the sequence of vignettes, the intensity of their grief, shown in the expressive nature of their contorted bodies that reach for the martyr’s coffin, extends beyond their bodies, impacting figures nearby as they too succumb to the state of mourning. By extension, the entire composition becomes consumed and contorted with angst, creating a world the viewer cannot ignore.

Shayota was born in 1959 in Telkaif, a small Chaldean town in northern Iraq. While studying in Baghdad in the mid 70s, he was immersed in the ideas and projections of Arab Nationalism, which were later reinforced in Egypt where he resided for two years. His work during this time comprised of folk images and local scenes of Iraqi villages. Shayota was inspired by ideas of Pan-Arabism which promoted pride in the people and through which attention to the working class was given. He read about emerging trends in literature and poetry of the region and familiarized himself with Modern Iraqi art, which flourished with the founding of the Academy of Fine Arts under the Abdul-Karim Qasem government. Despite the halting of the great intellectual momentum they gained during the late 50s to the early 60s, Iraqi artists persisted in producing important work in spite of the sociopolitical hardships they encountered living in and outside of Iraq. It is this artistic tradition that Shayota’s work stems from.

After moving to Egypt in 1978, Shayota exhibited with fellow Iraqi artists who had established an artistic community in route, as the mass exodus of Iraqis escaping a despotic regime continued. During the late 80s and early 90s, after immigrating to the United States, Shayota once again found an artistic community of émigrés, comprised of Arab and Chaldean artists residing in the Metropolitan Detroit area. Political events occurring in the Middle East, such as the Iran-Iraq war, the first Palestinian Intifada and the first Gulf War affected the narrative depictions of his paintings:

"My paintings grew in size and my style became more expressive. I began constructing images of a struggling people, of lands and seas, where skies become beasts and birds turn into bombs raining on cities. My intent is to allow converging symbols to dialogue, where all specifics seem deceptive."

Compositions that are both monumental in scale and subject matter possess commanding narratives through which the viewer is drawn into. In The City, the River and the Minarets, 1995, and Tigris and Euphrates, 1996, depictions of faltering realities take center stage, where everything and everyone is easily devoured by an impending disintegration of the space in which they occupy. Shayota’s depiction of the modern world leaves humanity to either parish with the centrical collapse of society or escape by sprouting wings and taking flight. Subsequently, the lives of Shayota’s figures are contingent on the condition of their environment. Little room is left for apathetic characters, as lands, seas, skies, birds and beasts appear in continuous motion, all cogs in the same apparatus of existence.

Juxtaposed with eminent annihilation is the vividness of Shayota’s palette. Rich unsullied color is applied with fluid brushstrokes combined with the coarse application of paint via palette knife and the physicality of Shayota wiping, smudging and scraping the canvas. This paradox of representation marks innocence delimited by horror, exposing a devastated world. Yet his paintings are not illustrations of the ugly. Despite the catastrophic nature of their surroundings, Shayota’s figures are depicted with beauty and grace.

Coexistence in The City, the River and the Minarets and Tigris and Euphrates translates as both parallel existences and similar fates. It is through this quintessential aspect of his narratives that Shayota comments on modern day society. Here we find the impacts of war, which is often tied to imperialism and colonialism in the intricate webs of history that form current international relations. In such work the visual representation of a political conflict reaches far beyond its respective historical, regional and social parameters, to become a universal travesty of mankind.

In Ethnic Cleansing, 1993, Shayota alludes to the horrific war crimes that occurred during the Bosnian war through the depiction of a wolf-like beast overpowering a helpless people. A central figure, expelled from the womb of a wounded female figure, is framed by the bodies of other victims who have fallen under the monstrous attack. The fetus-like figure appears to have sprouted her own wings and taken flight yet flies directly into the arms of the beast. The most impacting element of Shayota’s war narrative being that not even the second generation that seeks to escape the fatality of a violent conflict is able to find refuge.

Appendages, bodies and spatial planes overlap as the descending beast engulfs the powerless figures. The overlapping of figures, objects and space work to imply incessant motion, as Shayota’s allegorical representation is not a singular moment in time, but a continuous assault. This effect also creates a detonation of expression that cannot be contained to the canvas, again making it impossible for the viewer to escape the brutality of war that dominates their line of sight.

The multidimensional nature of his compositions acts as a stimulating agent to the viewer’s receptors. Caught in a world of pandemonium and total madness, Shayota’s figures appear on the brink of departure. The summation of such devastating elements places the viewer within spaces of tragic heroes, those caught between the harsh realities of the world and an escape into unknown territory.
The paintings discussed above continue to resonate in the current political climate. As the executor of such creative expressions, Shayota acts in defiance of the world he portrays.

Through his tragic heroes he protests the present state of global affairs, where violence and conflict dominate our contemporary reality. As his figures appear to be taking flight, they refuse to accept the fatality from which they escape. From gnarled spatial elements to deconstructive surrealist renditions of the world, Shayota articulates his own political dissent with the destabilization of normalcy.