From Trump To Assad: Syrian Artist Reimagines World Leaders As Vulnerable Refugees
Darpan News Desk IANS, 09 Jun, 2017 01:47 PM
A Syrian refugee artist has spent 19 months creating a series of paintings in his Brussels studio showing world leaders as displaced or disenfranchised people and is showcasing them in a Dubai gallery.
Abdalla Al Omari’s “The Vulnerability Series” includes paintings of US President Donald Trump as a bedraggled refugee with a sleeping child in his arms, Russian President Vladimir Putin as a beggar, as well as former British Prime Minister David Cameron and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“My aim somehow shifted from an expression of anger to a more vivid desire of disarming these figures, (to) picture them outside their positions of power”, Omari told Al Jazeera.
Omari started painting in Damascus shortly after the start of the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. He fled and was granted asylum in Belgium.
Gallery visitor Sami Azraq said the portraits were a unique take on the refugee crisis.
“I think it’s an interesting way or it’s a nicer way to look at the problem rather than our usual news or social media or other outlets,” he said.
Canadians want to press ahead with reconciliation in the wake of the residential school era, Justin Trudeau said Monday as he described his efforts to encourage Pope Francis to apologize for the Catholic Church's role in the tragedy.
Former world number one golfer Tiger Woods was arrested in South Florida on Monday morning on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to media reports.
The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of Arnab Goswami and his newly-launched news channel Republic TV on Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s defamation plea against them.
The intelligence community in the US is believed to have informed the US Congress that Pakistan has by and large failed to curb militants and terrorists operating from its soil.
The level of devotion one feels toward religious beliefs can predict how that person likely will interact with members of his own group or with members outside of the group, according to a recent study.
