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Podcast: EMPIRE LINES
Episode: World Civil War Portraits, Sara Shamma (2015) (EMPIRE LINES Live at PEACE FREQUENCIES, Dulwich Picture Gallery, National Museum of Damascus)
Description: In this special episode, contemporary artist Sara Shamma paints experiences of conflict, modern slavery, and hopes for postwar reconstruction, travelling between Syria, Lebanon, and London, in their series, World Civil War Portraits (2015).*Content Warning* This episode discusses rape and other forms of sexual violence.Syria has a ‘young’ or ‘short’ art history, in Western/European terms. The country’s first galleries and art schools appeared in the 1960s, offering little contemporary arts education or practice. Working within - and rebelling against - these institutions, Damascus-born artist Sara Shamma taught themselves to paint ‘as an Old/Dutch Master...