Living in Damascus for seven months at the start of the revolution, Tammam Azzam left Syria with his family as he refused to join the military and pick up arms against his countrymen. When his studio was lost with his relocation, the prolific painter turned to digital art to express his emotions concerning the events unfolding in his homeland. Two years later, Azzam’s digital artworks, paintings and installations have gained international notoriety as a form of protest through which he delivers powerfully direct political messages and raises important socio-political and humanitarian questions.

Examples of his digital artworks abound in the form of fractured and wounded maps of the country, hand grenades sprouting flowers, and symbols of peace reconfigured into targets all symbolizing the long standing violence Syrians have been facing.

One work that has gained global popularity is Freedom Graffiti. In this work, Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss is overlaid atop the facade of a bullet-ridden, crumbling building to articulate loving relationships juxtaposed with the capacity of hate the regime holds for its people. The street art component of this work attracted international fame, being shared through social media and press outlets across the world, and this work led the artist to further explore this art form and its universal accessibility.

Employing the stenciling method paramount to street art and rendered on a concrete-like surface, his recent digital artworks, Exit and Syrian Olympic, challenge the viewer and the wider political community. A row of armed soldiers stand tall in Exit while a figure walking towards the canvas edge carries a rucksack on his back. Commenting on the mass exodus of Syrians with the violence of the Uprising and Civil War, this artwork reflects the loss so many have endured. Syrian Olympic cleverly juxtaposes the iconic interlocking Olympic rings and competitive sports of shooting and sprinting to symbolise the unity of the international community in their observation of the tragedies unfolding in Syria and their joint inaction.

Azzam’s flag lightboxes also comment on the international community’s silence towards his homeland. Green, black or red, each borrows from the main colours of Arab national flags to propose a new flag order for a free Syria, while a single word - united - features in each lightbox. ‘United Nations’, ‘United States’ and ‘United Russia’, all question the movement of arms and fledging international support to the people of Syria in the Uprising and subsequent Civil War. Though the artist recognises that art alone cannot save Syria, he hopes his artworks and others like it will help awaken the international community to the horrors affecting his countrymen.

-Ayyam Gallery

Image: © Tammam Azzam