Lamentation Labyrinth
Medium: Acrylic on Panel with Mixed Media
Moustafa O. Mohammed
On Resilience
Acrylic on Panel with Mixed Media
Violence may be a natural part of existence, but violence toward children whether in times of war, peace, or in between, is always a choice. It is a choice made collectively in our societies, institutions, communities, and our individual actions.
This work examines the tension between harm and healing through a pair of wooden panels. On one side, a child sits in a classroom beneath the heavy presence of an authority figure presented as a shadowy silhouette. The figure is a metaphor for institutional power, systems, and ideologies that permit corporal punishment of children. Educational institutions are meant to be safe places that nurture the intellect, yet my experiences showed me otherwise.
Experiences that exist in many places around the world, hardly talked about or simply dismissed; left unquestioned and unchallenged.
The damaged wing and fractured arm echoes some of those experiences both historically and current: From Indigenous American and Canadian to Welsh, Gaelic, and Kurdish-speaking children, beaten for using their native languages, to the quieter, personal betrayals children face by the very adults and institutions meant to protect them.
The second panel turns toward care and resilience. A tree growing upward, carrying the Kurdish words “Learn with care, Teach with care, and Grow,” each of them in the 3 different Kurdish languages, Kurmanji, Sorani, and Zazaki. These words represent a future built through compassion rather than control.
The two panels reflect on resilience as a quiet strength required to survive systems that fail to see us. This work critiques these systems & institutions, speaks to the possibility of a different path, rooted in dignity, choice, and the simple act of caring.
