Yemeni Art Showcase

 

    For this blog I have gone over primarily Western art history. With this entry I would like to take time to talk about non-western artists and their works, as their contributions to the art world are just as significant. With that, I would like to present contemporary art from the country of Yemen.

    Entry in The Walls Remember Their Faces 

Murad Subay (2012-2013)

    The past thirty years have seen great political and civil strife in multiple middle eastern countries, including Yemen. In 2011 the acting president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, resigned as the leader of the country following widespread civil outcry against his autocratic leadership. Following this peaceful revolution, the country was led to a constitutional convention by his vice president, backed by the United States government. However, no agreement was reached in the delegations. Multiple groups vying for power were unable to reach acceptable terms and have been jockeying for control in Yemen since.

    Stepping did not erase everything that had happened in the decades of Saleh's leadership. During his time in office a great deal of political dissidents and undesirables went missing. This is what inspired artist Murad Subay to begin a street art campaign called The Walls Remember Their Faces. Using stencils that outlined the likenesses of known missing persons, Subay and his colleagues started tagging buildings all around Sana'a, then the capital of the country. Although these works were repeatedly censored by political and military forces, Subay and his colleagues continued to tag faces like the ones shown above around Sana'a for about 8 months. 

    I enjoy these works for their solidarity and undeniable nature. To destroy or paint over these tags only hides them from the passing eye, but not the wall. Seeing each one is such an emotional punch to the stomach that it's impossible to ignore.

    They Purchased Light and Smuggled Hope

Salwa Aleryani (2012)

    The armed conflicts and lack of unified infrastructure that took place in Yemen during recent times had left many services failing or unavailable to most citizens. A fuel crisis resulted in sweeping outages and frequent blackouts across the country. In addition to this, electricity bills became far more expensive to keep on top of. Shown above is an electricity bill with numerous phrases written across it, one being They Purchased Light and Smuggled Hope, the title of the piece by Aleryani. This work was part of a series of hers focused on the civil struggle of people living in Yemen, and relays a message of desperation. I particularly enjoy this piece for its title. To have to live without knowing when you may have light or heat is truly harrowing and it is fully captured with the title.

    Hope For Yemen

Mazher Nizar (2013)

    Despite the uncertainly felt by many of Yemen's citizens, people hold onto a sense of optimism and relay it through much of their art. Shown above is a corpse sprouting flowers, a visual metaphor for growing past the conflicts of the past. With this work and multiple others, Nizar conveys hope and optimism for the future of his country as well as his appreciation for its beauty and the talent of its people. For this reason, I greatly admire his works, including the one above.

Bibliography

Al-Shamahi, Abubakr. “Yemeni Street Artist Uses Sana’a Walls to Remember the Disappeared.” The Guardian, 23 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/31/yemeni-street-artist-disappeared-sanaa-walls.

Cornwell, Tim. “Invisible but Alive: How the Art Scene Is Surviving in Yemen.” Middle East Eye, 2019, www.middleeasteye.net/discover/yemen-art-scene.

Robinson, Kali. “Yemen’s Tragedy: War, Stalemate, and Suffering.” Council on Foreign Relations, 21 Oct. 2022, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/yemen-crisis.