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| Freedom - oil on canvas - 50x60 cm |
I painted this because I’ve been thinking about freedom, and
because I was thinking about what happened in 2011-2012. During that year, a
pale resemblance to a revolution took place in Kuwait. Perhaps a reluctant, shy
echo of the Arab Spring that was brave and roaring in other Middle Eastern
countries. As a revolutionist myself I naively took to social media, and unwisely
voiced my political views. Now I laugh a sad soundless laugh at how ambitious
my dreams were; an elected government, and end to the monarchy! I had a lot of
sweet, bookish ideas of how to create social justice, eradicate class distinction,
racism, sexism, and government corruption.
When I think back on how I was prosecuted - slightly dodging
a jail sentence - and how other activists were jailed. I think about how we
were like birds, small, frail birds, that saw the barbed wires ahead but brazenly
imagined we could fly through them. We measured the freedom that could have
been ours on the other side, all that sky. But we undermined the danger. We
were caught by the rusty metallic old hook, sharp and tyrant. In our foolish attempt
to break free; we flapped our wings violently, we shook, we struggled, we refused,
we resisted. Not understanding, that all the while we drove the nails of oppression
and dictatorship deeper into our wings, into our flesh, into dreams of freedom.
