Artist makes less art as world grows careless about war on Yemen
A Yemeni artist, Ahmed Jahaf, is to stop painting about the "forgotten war" in Yemen because the world is "bored" or simply "doesn't care."
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Yemen: 'I'm making less art... the world is bored with the war'.
A graphic designer and artist, Ahmed Jahaf, lives in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Five years ago, he talked about his country's "forgotten war" in the Art Newspaper.
He talked about the Saudi-led coalition's aggression on Yemen, with the full support of the United States and the United Kingdom, mentioning also the current food-security crisis that has affected more than 17 million starving children.
"Seven years after it started; there is still war, siege, and famine, and the world watches and knows this. I’m still angry because the US and the UK are supporting the governmental Saudi-led coalition and are still selling arms to Saudi Arabia," he said.
Read next: Sanaa: Siege of Yemeni people hinders the extension of truce
Jahaf added, "The war is not forgotten, though. The war in Yemen is ignored because the US and its allies are responsible for the majority of the suffering, and they benefit from this war and participate in it directly or indirectly."
The United Nations declared an armistice in April, which was extended for another two months in June and again on August 3. However, the Saudi-led coalition breached the armistice several times, causing citizens to suffer more.
Read next: Al-Mashat: Extending armistice linked to stopping Saudi aggression
“Is there hope for peace in Yemen?”
Jahad talked about his daily activities that involve watching the news and recording events such as air raids. He explained, "I continue to make works at night, using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere, and Photoshop. I’ve also shown prints at the Art the Arms Fair in London (2017 and 2019)."
He recently published a PDF titled, Art of War, which featured his most important designs and works. In one of the works, he criticizes the UK government’s role in providing weapons to Saudi Arabia used in airstrikes on Yemen.
In another piece, he attempts to convey World War III by transplanting a symbol of a huge explosion onto the flags of major countries and organizations. Another image shows the dove of peace impaled with a sword, and the question: “Is there hope for peace in Yemen?”
Read next: Al-Houthi: Truce has not yielded results so far
In the book preface I say, “I dedicate to you these artistic works that I designed during the Saudi aggression and war in Yemen… [this is] a message to the world which watches and participates in silence about this aggression. I started making works of art from the very first day of the war in Yemen under bombings, sieges, and suffering.”
Jahaf mentioned that he would be stopping any new work because "those who were interested in Yemen are bored or preoccupied with other events and conflicts," adding, "There are other issues in the world that people care about. After all, we’re only Yemenis, and this is still the ignored war."
