East Ghouta artist transforms mortar shells, bullet casings

DRAWING ON DEATH: Mohamed Duma, the alias of an artist in the encircled, rebel-held East Ghouta city of Douma, creates striking pieces from used bullet casings and mortar shells, “drawing on death” for inspiration.

Duma’s newest pieces, pictured above, were posted on the artist’s Facebook page Monday.

“I don’t want to make death more beautiful, but rather to make life more beautiful, even if it means embellishing death and ugliness itself—this is the most prominent element in people’s lives in this closed-off, besieged plot of land, afflicted by every type of disaster,” Duma told pro-opposition news agency All4Syria in a May 29 interview.

The town of Douma, which has endured a regime-imposed siege for two years, suffers from continuous shelling coupled with a critical lack of food, medicine, electricity, and fuel.

The artist says his art is also born of immediate, physical concerns.

“The only material in abundance, with regularity, is the remains of the repeated bombings, those that never stop.”

-November 10, 2014

-Photo courtesy of Mohamad Duma.

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