A Syrian Graffiti Artist, Defiant Until Death

Original Article appears here

They called him "the spray man" for his graffiti that appeared all over the Syrian capital of Damascus. But in truth, 23-year-old Nour Hatem Zahra was an activist like any other activist.

He started protesting in Syria last spring. Back then, the opposition thought it would only take a few months to get rid of President Bashar Assad, as it had in Tunisia and Egypt.

Then Syrian forces started killing protesters, detaining them, torturing them. And the people started fighting back.

But still, there was Nour Hatem Zahra and his friends — organizing protests, hiding activists from the dreaded security forces, ferrying medical supplies to those who were injured but terrified to go to a government hospital.

Then late last year, Zahra got caught. Under torture, one of his friends had given up his name. Zahra later forgave the friend.

He was locked up for 56 days. As soon as he got out, he was at it again. He and his friends went around spraying the suburbs of Syria's capital, Damascus, with slogans against the Syrian president: "Down with the traitor." "To the trash heap of history." Pictures of the president with the word "pig" scrawled underneath.

A few weeks ago, Zahra and his friends declared "Freedom Graffiti Week." The Facebook page calls their work a mix of civil disobedience and peaceful expression.

Following examples set in other Arab Spring countries like Tunisia and Egypt, Syrian activists have taken to arming themselves with cans of spray paint and stencils to peacefully protest against embattled President Bashar al-Assad’s regime via a very public and artistic medium – graffiti.

Activists have called for “a week of graffiti for freedom” from April 14 – 21 not only in Syria, but across the Arab world. The campaign invites everyone, tagger or not, to pick up a can of spray paint and peacefully express their feelings in a public place. The project, which was launched on social networking websites by a Syrian activist living in exile and several of his peers still in the country, included an online tutorial and printable stencil models.

Create a stencil and paint it safely.

Last year, Sean Leow took my Street Art tour of San Francisco's Mission District. He knew a good bit about art in the streets and eventually asked me "do you know about any stencils and graffiti in China?" My answer was no. I believed that it existed and was not that well known due to language barriers (as well as accessing evidence of a sometimes illegal art inside a tightly-controlled country like China). Leow not only knew about street art and graffiti from that part of the planet, he also was part of a group of people who were creating content for the site Neocha Edge, based in Shanghai (http://edge.neocha.com/category/street-urban-art/). He gave me links and jpgs of art from China, Taiwan, and other parts of Asia. I eventually posted them up in the Asia Archive (http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/Asia), and was happy to have two artists, Brother (http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/Asia/artists/Brother-T…) and ROBBBB, get their own artist archives.

Since then, ROBBBB has gotten in touch to say hello from Beijing, pass his personal link along (http://robbbb.com/), and give me some more jpgs to post into his archive (http://www.stencilarchive.org/archives/index.php/Asia/artists/ROBBBB).

I am happy to know that there are stencil artists getting up in China. When I wrote "Stencil Nation," I attempted to include parts of Asia in the content. I was fortunate enough to find a few photographers via Flickr who had traveled to Taiwan and Japan and snapped up some stencil photos. Back in 2008, Asia seemed to be a blank spot in the Stencil Archive geography. There were no books, and artists like Logan Hicks were just starting to travel there with stencil art. I knew it had to be there, and, like the rest of the world, street art and graffiti has blossomed in all cracks and corners of the globe. Including Taibei and Beijing.

(Stencil by ROBBBB, Beijing)

During our most recent email exchange, ROBBBB wished that the English-speaking world could find out more about stencils in China. So I asked him some questions and he was glad to answer them. I have cleaned up the grammar of ROBBBB's answers, but have tried to keep the spirit and intent of his answers intact. I look forward to seeing more mu-ban art and graffiti from China. Keep an eye out for new works by ROBBBB, along with other folks who cut the negative space.

……………………………

Stencil Archive: How do you say "stencil" in your dialect?

ROBBBB: We call stencils "模板". To pronounce it, it is spelled "mu-ban".

Stencil Archive: My research shows that cut out art originated in China. Do you have any historical details about cut out art?

ROBBBB: Do you know the "paper-cut for window decoration"?

Stencil Archive: No.

ROBBBB: "On the joyous New Year's Day, a lot of people in this area stick various kinds of paper-cut - paper-cut for window decoration - in windows so that they can enjoy it. The paper-cut for window decoration not only sets off the joyous festive air; it also brings beautiful enjoyment to people by incorporating decorating, appreciation, and an ease-of-use into an organic whole. The paper-cut is a kind of well popularized folk art, well received by people through the ages. Because it is mostly stuck on the window, people generally call it "the paper-cut for window decoration".

Gallery House
320 California Ave at Birch
(through Printers' Inc Cafe)
Palo Alto, CA 94306
650.326.1668

GALLERY HOURS:
Tuesday, 11 am - 4 pm
Wednesday - Saturday, 11 am - 8 pm
Sunday, 11 am - 3 pm

Next Friday, April 13, I'll be showing a new series of collage stencil sets at Incline Gallery in SF. The exhibit, Counterproof: The Other Side of Print, will feature works in a number of different media by Imin Yeh, Elisheva Biernoff, David Linger and The Great Tortilla Conspiracy and myself. Counterproof will explore new avenues in contemporary printmaking by juxtaposing divergent approaches; the exhibition simultaneously celebrates and deconstructs the very notion of printmaking itself. From projecting light through mediums, running porcelain plates through a press, to sewing stencils together-the artists in Counterproof are redefining print, producing works of extended conceptual reach.

Join me on Friday April 13 from 6 - 9 pm at Incline Gallery and enjoy drinks, great people and an even better show.

Incline Gallery
766 Valencia St. b/w 18th and 19th
(Side gate)
San Francisco, CA 94110

Crossie SOLO Show

at Pure Evil Gallery this Thursday

Lisa Cole a.k.a CROSSIE is a fine artist working and living in East London. She has exhibited her works in London, Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and in her former hometown of Brighton.

Crossie has recently re-located to London to focus solely on her development as an artist, her works fast becoming part of private art collections across Europe. In January, Crossies artwork was selected and exhibited in Vienna . Her brightly coloured images were hung within the impressive vaults of a 600 year old Viennese church.

Metamorphosis is Crossies debut one-woman show at Pure Evil Gallery, Shoreditch.
The show will run from 5th until 18th April 2012.