Criterion

“Three Kings ruled over modern Iraq. They were brought over from the Hejaz. The last of them was King Faisal II. His death heralded the beginning of military rule in Iraq and the dawn of unending war, both within and across its borders… I shall lay these colors on unprimed canvas to tell the story of the three Kings and the men who came after them, just as the stories of generals are told by the military ribbons affixed to their chests. I venture that the threads from these ribbons will extend to find their origin in the barrels of guns…”

In this exhibition, Yahya explores the modern history of Iraq and its military, as well as his own experience of national service. While depicting the Iraqi monarchy in three paintings, one for each generation, he has broken and obscured the kings’ faces with objects of local importance, including palm fronds and traditional wedding material. This white fabric acts as a shroud for the engaged but unmarried King Faisal II, who was killed at a young age, and it is adorned with circles that echo the walls of ancient Uruk and encircle his body like bullet holes.

These same bullet holes appear in ordered patterns on paper silhouette targets, which criticise the clinical detachment of shooting under orders and the apparent disregard for human life. Similar circles mark the heads and shoulders of people in a bird’s eye view of a crowd, hinting that civilian demonstrators are at risk of target practice and have no individual importance of their own.

Yahya also paints colored stripes on untreated canvas, reminiscent of the raw linen used for military attire. The stripes are inspired by tubes of paint lying in cardboard boxes, which he likened to bodies in mass graves, but in fact resemble the colored ribbons on the uniforms of army officers. As well as a military cap, these are the only defining features on an undefined and generic military portrait, and they also frame a plastic rendering of an AK47. Once Yahya’s constant companion, the rifle appears here as a useless toy with a bent barrel, as if melted from the heat of being fired or impotent with age, like the once-violent soldiers now decorated as officers in recognition of their past.