Wafaa Bilal - Artist Lecture

Wafaa Bilal is a multimedia artist from Iraq who gave an artist lecture presented by the University’s Department of Art on October 27^th.  Bilal creates pieces that are sometimes interactive, and his work is highly based on the political conflicts between Iraq and the United States.

The first project he discussed was called Domestic Tension, which he started in May of 2007.  The basis of this project is that people can go online to shoot paintballs at Bilal at any time of the day.  Bilal wanted to portray the dehumanizing effect on US citizens about war and combat zones.  He said he thought of this project as being a combat zone versus a comfort zone.  I think this project shows the willingness of people to shoot at someone they don’t know for entertainment value if not for political grudges.  Bilal discusses that he was terrified during the project, each time the gun would click meant that someone was on the other end about to shoot him.  For me, this project acted as a small-scale reenactment of what the people in Iraq face.  Bilal’s purpose is to bring awareness to people who live their day-to-day lives not knowing what is happening elsewhere in the world.

Another project I found interesting was the video game Bilal created that was essentially a hunt for George W. Bush.  There was a lot of controversy over Bilal showing his video game on college campuses, and many people called him a terrorist.  His rebuttal is that art is not terrorism, and he is creating work to evoke thought that is not linked to terrorism.

Bilal also made an artistic and political statement with a tattoo on his back.  He got a map of Iraq, with dots in certain places to represent the number of Iraqi deaths in that area.  The whole tattoo was done in invisible ink, which is a comment on how Iraqi deaths seem to go unnoticed.

Bilal’s last project, which is an ongoing project, is a camera in the back of his head that captures images everywhere he goes from the back of his head.  One audience member raised the question that he may have started this project because of a sense of paranoia, and that he wants to keep a visual of what is happening behind his back at all times.  I think Bilal is trying to make a statement that he is watching you, even when his back is turned to you.  You can see Bilal’s latest project at www.3rdi.me.