Liberal Repercussion

Images of prisoner abuse seeping into art scene

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/666030.cms

AP[ SUNDAY, MAY 09, 2004 09:05:29 AM ]

BAGHDAD: The crouching man is naked, his hands tied and his head covered with a hood.

The alabaster sculpture on display at a Baghdad gallery bears a striking resemblance to some of the shocking photographs that emerged last week of Iraqi prisoners abused by their American guards at the Abu Ghraib prison.

But the 15-inch sculpture, with words "We are living American democracy" inscribed on its base, was fashioned two months ago.

"We knew what went on at Abu Ghraib," Abdul-Kareem Khalil, the artist, said on Saturday. "The pictures did not surprise me."

The nature of America's occupation of Iraq, which many Iraqis increasingly perceive as intolerable, is finding its way to the local art scene.

posted by Rei Toei @ 5:22 p.m.