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Painting in the shadow of ISIS

by Brandon Jacobsen - 08/17/16 5:16 PM ET

“Art awakens us to the dimensions of life that we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise,” Marwan said.

“Dimensions of Life,” as it so happens, is the name of one of Marwan’s paintings. It’s a piece that highlights the aspects of an individual’s life that go beyond their victimhood. In this case, the individuals portrayed in the painting are targeted for genocide.

{mosads}Marwan himself is a victim of the Yazidi genocide, an ongoing and cruel reality which has had catastrophic effects on the Yazidi ethnoreligious minority (an estimated 700,000 worldwide, most of whom are located in northern Iraq). The genocide, carried out by the so-called “Islamic State” (or “ISIS”), has recently been recognized by the United Nations, and has left ninety percent of Iraq’s Yazidis displaced, upwards of 5,000 men and boys murdered, and 7,000 women and girls abducted into sexual slavery. According to the UN report, at least 3,200 individuals remain in captivity.

Numbers such as these have been well reported. What’s sometimes missing from the narrative are the stories of the affected individuals themselves, both in terms of the atrocities they’ve experienced and the rich elements of their lives that define them outside of the genocide. Through his art, Marwan hopes to bring these stories to light.

In the spirit of his artistic vision, here is a chapter from Marwan’s story.

Marwan is a 24-year-old young man from the town of Khanasor in Sinjar, Iraq. Until the genocide began, Sinjar was the primary homeland of the Yazidis. On August 3, 2014, he was forced to leave his hometown when ISIS descended to begin their genocidal campaign. Like 40,000 other Yazidis, he fled to the mountain, which rises high above the city, villages, and collective towns that surround it. Together with his family, he was stuck there for nine days with no food and very limited water, as ISIS ravaged his homeland below. When a safe corridor was finally opened by Kurdish and Yazidi forces, he escaped with his family through Syria to Iraqi Kurdistan, where he has been living in displacement ever since.

Months after the genocide began, following a period of profound reflection, Marwan started to paint. He had only drawn in the years leading up to August 3, but this event marked a drastic change of course in his artistic life. Without any formal training, Marwan used oil paints for the first time to cover countless canvasses with the realities of the genocide and life in an Iraq so often fraught with conflict and hardship. His paintings were — and still are — inspired by the real stories of his people, reflecting the myriad dimensions of their lives. He paints in a style all his own, though given some surrealist tendencies, he does acknowledge a particular affinity with the Catalan painter Salvador Dalí.

It didn’t take long for Marwan to begin using his newly discovered talent to empower younger individuals in his community. He partnered with local NGOs to give art classes to internally displaced persons (or “IDPs”) in camps around Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan (where a majority of the displaced Yazidis now live).

Today, less than 60 kilometers from the front line with ISIS, Marwan works for a local NGO that supports and advocates for the Yazidis, carefully documenting the details of the genocide. He spends nearly all of his free time painting, often late into the night and throughout the weekends. He dreams of moving to the United States to pursue formal training and extend the reach of his art.

Marwan paints to tell the stories of the Yazidi community, and he paints because he’s compelled to do so. In seeing his art individuals in the international community may very well be awakened to the realities of the genocide that await behind the numbers, and to a community that longs for peace and their own voice after years of marginalization and persecution. In the best case scenario, this awakening will be followed by decisive action carried out by civilians and government officials alike.

In the context of the greatest refugee and displacement crisis since the Second World War, there is nothing quite like exposure to the lives of individuals (in their plight and multi-dimensionality) to help counter fear and inspire action on their behalf.

It is only a matter of time before Marwan’s paintings emerge from the shadows of ISIS, and when they do, we will all be better off for having seen them.

Brandon Jacobsen is currently based in northern Iraq working with an NGO that supports the displaced Yazidi community. He is also a Master’s candidate in Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University.

The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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