Saddam's Babylon: Platform Arts Belfast, Feb 2011
by Rashida Sadiq
"In the era of Saddam Hussein, protector of Iraq, who rebuilt civilization and rebuilt Babylon. SdH."
The Bible adamantly states that Babylon would be destroyed and never rebuilt; the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Revelations are explicit on this subject. The city is associated with the anti-Christ and it is said to be the seat of power for the “tyrant of the world”. This was a Christian prophecy that Saddam Hussein found irresistible to prove wrong. He began construction of his new Babylon just three years into his presidency. His ‘restoration’ program would send out a resounding visual message to the Christian Western world that Saddam’s power was so omnipotent that he could raise Babylon from the dust, sealing his place in history as the restorer of the ancient city. However Saddam’s grandiose plans of resurrection involved building on top of the foundation stones of King Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace (c.600 B.C.) with bricks embossed with his own inscriptions.
"In the era of Saddam Hussein, protector of Iraq, who rebuilt civilization and rebuilt Babylon. SDH” silk-screen, ink, card.
The text from Saddam’s bricks - “In the era of Saddam Hussein, protector of Iraq, who rebuilt civilization and rebuilt Babylon. SDH ”, - has been screen-printed onto the walls of Platform Arts Gallery in Belfast in its original Arabic. The artists have left the silkscreen, ink and squeegee used for stencilling the text on a pallet accompanied by a pile of card also printed with the same inscription. The low-tech quality of the assemblage indicates a quick and inexpensive method for the creation of multiples. It is said that Saddam’s bricks were so cheaply manufactured that they were crumbling within a few years of production. Ironically his inscribed bricks have now become treasures for souvenir seekers just like pieces of the Berlin wall.
Historians and archaeologists working in Iraq ridiculed Saddam’s project as ‘Disney for a Despot’. Saddam only succeeded in defacing invaluable archaeological sites and artefacts preferring to replace them with his own vision of grandiosity. Ostentatious, Vegas style monuments and over exaggerated arches had to be concocted as a blueprint for the ancient city of Babylon does not exist.
‘Babylon Theme Park’, digital print collage on paper.
The artists have avoided any obvious images of the despot and his reincarnated city, preferring instead to exhibit visual references to the overblown creations of Saddam’s ego. The piece entitled ‘Babylon Theme Park’ presents two maps; one of the ancient city, the other of the modern newly recreated Babylon. They are sliced, torn and then attached with one sandwiched between the other. Saddam’s vaulting intention was to presumably mimic King Nebuchadnezzar II but his attempts to develop the ancient city eradicated rather than enhanced Mesopotamia’s heritage. By associating himself with Nebuchadnezzar, Hussein further attempted to convince the Iraqi people, as well as the Arab nations of their rightful place in history. It is not unusual for certain historical figures to invoke the past to pursue contemporary objectives.
Saddam’s Babylon’ digital photograph & ‘The Wings of Love mural’ video projection - gallery installation.
This adoption of cultural signifiers is also evident in the photograph of a deteriorated wall painting copied from Stephen Pearson’s kitsch original, ‘The Wings of Love’ (c.1972). Rumour has it that Saddam had the mural commissioned for a wall beside one of his many swimming pools in his palace. An accompanying publication informs us that Pearson sold over 3.5 million prints of this picture during the 70’s and 80’s. The image of the mural incongruously placed at one of Saddam’s swimming pools seems to point to a mismatch between cultural norms, a reflection on some Middle Eastern leader’s relationship with Western power. A debased Western cultural form adopted by a secular tyrant seems emblematic of many circumstances in this part of the world. One wonders how Saddam would have fared in the present climate if there had been no invasion by coalition forces. The murals central section is also projected onto the back wall of the gallery and presented like an ancient artefact removed from its original setting to be viewed in a museum setting.
‘During 3 days & nights’ video installation.
An old monitor sitting on a rusty set of shelves displays a documentary featuring Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, former Head of the Board of Antiquities in Baghdad. His voice resonates throughout the gallery. Dr Youkhanna describes the catastrophic events of his return to the Iraq Museum on the 13th April 2003. Between the 8th and 12th fighting had broken out on the museum grounds and the museum employees had fled. Thousands of priceless historic and archaeological relics belonging to the ancient Sumerian civilization and other periods of Mesopotamian history disappeared from storerooms. Dr Youkhanna believed that approximately 15 thousand items were destroyed or stolen and that bizarrely many of the cuneiform tablets (the oldest examples of writing) were auctioned on e-Bay. Images of the damaged museum are shown revealing the extent of the devastation. The repositories of records have been emptied and left to rot. In the footage the viewer catches a brief glimpse of ‘The Wings of Love ‘mural taken from Saddam’s Palace. We know that an association with a particular individual makes an object acquire a significance it would not otherwise have; indeed many art works have used this strategy for obtaining wider exposure in a society obsessed with celebrity and fame. By ‘salvaging’ the mural from the pool wall and placing it in a museum the artists forces us to consider this form of cultural weighting by association and possibly its absurdity.
’Persian rug in a pool’ digital photograph.
A found photograph showing a Persian rug half immersed in a swimming pool seems to capture a gestalt snapshot of the artists’ intentions. An object of possible value is carelessly discarded and left in a susceptible situation – the chlorine treated water damaging the submerged fibres. Without proper assessment and protection objects of cultural importance can be lost, though equally importance can be distorted by context. Traditionally cultural significance is attributed by those in positions of power - that includes curators, critics and collectors. Any unquestioning acceptance of this hegemony should be challenged.
Rashida Sadiq is a writer based in London