Humaira Abid

Humaira Abid, a Pakistani artist who lives in Seattle, created an exhibition (seen at Greg Kucera gallery) focusing on children from Gaza17 , Israel 2 and Ukraine 4

who have died in war.

Her installation “The Shape of War” consists of twenty-four children’s desks (she plans on creating many more). On the desk is a “Rehal,” that would hold a Quran.

In this case they have prayer beads and a flower- a primrose symbolizes innocence or a petunia symbolizing hope.

Each desk has a drawer. When you pull it out you see photographs of a child and a text. Each text details stories from the child’s life, how they were killed, and many photos of the child.

Batool

This exhibition is heartbreaking. As we look at the photographs of the happy child with her family, and read the texts, it is almost unbearably sad. I

t is hard to imagine how the artist could create this work. But Humaira has been a socially engaged artist for a long time, so this is only an intensification of her deep commitments. This sense of art for social justice began whem she was an art student in Pakistan and saw the discrimination that female artists faced in Pakistan.

She worked directly with families for their stories

She has 17 from Gaza, 2 from Israel, and 4 from Ukraine