Osman Ahmed Displaced

  • KurdishMedia.com
  • 29/05/2008 00:00:00

You are cordially invited to visit the Imperial War Museum London to mark the opening of the exhibition

Osman Ahmed Displaced

Saturday 7 June, gallery viewing 12.00 – 1.00pm

Refreshments from 1.00pm

John Singer Sargent Room

Imperial War Museum

Lambeth Road

London SE1 6HZ

Osman Ahmed DISPLACED

The work of contemporary Kurdish artist Osman Ahmed looks back on the experiences of the Kurdish people during the Anfal repression by Saddam Hussein’s forces in 1986-1989. Forced to flee from Iraq, Ahmed journeyed to Iran where he was imprisoned, and later to Syria, Russia and the UK. His displacement reflects the plight of the Kurdish people shown in his drawings, where crowds of people migrate endlessly through a deserted landscape towards an unknown destination. Individual stories are evoked in a collection of bright, intense acrylic works and the exhibition also includes a series of dark, abstract drawings from the artist’s experience in prison. This exhibition, displayed in the John Singer Sargent Room with the First World War painting Gassed, pays contemporary tribute to the endurance of civilians in the face of chemical attack, forced migration, mass killing and deep suffering.

Osman Ahmed studied at Sulaimaniyah College of Art and later at Camberwell School of Art in London. His current doctoral research investigates artists’ responses to crimes against humanity and the role of drawing in documenting the Anfal genocidal campaign against the Kurds.

Imperial War Museum

Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ

Exhibition continues until 7 September 2008

  • KurdishMedia.com
  • 29/05/2008 00:00:00