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My Finger Didn’t Get Ink
A documentary video of a live performance, Arbil – Kurdistan 2009
Exhibition: Contemporary Art of Iraq: Cornerhouse, Manchester, U.K.
On the official holiday for the Iraqi parliamentary election, we presented a performance in front of a polling booth in Arbil, Iraq. Made in conjunction with Namo Rostem Zadeh, a refugee artist from Kurdistan/Iran, our performance was a criticism of the plight of Iranian/Kurdish refugees living in Iraq, as well as of Iraqi law. The artwork, which was deemed illegal by the authorities, highlighted the inability of many Iranian refugees to vote in the Iraqi general election of 2009. As part of the performance, we played different traditional Kurdish games in front of a polling booth. Through these games we wanted to portray our wish to be respected as active, rather than passive agents in Iraqi society. In addition, the intention of the artwork was to represent the discrepancy between citizen and non-citizen within Iraqi law. Specifically, it was to highlight who can vote and who can’t. We painted a ball, our faces, and our hands, while being under intense surveillance by the police, and surrounded by people. The colour that we used called into question the use of ink to distinguish between those who have voted and who have not. The use of permanent ink as a marker of those who have voted is a very visible representation of refugees’ inability to vote, and therefore helps to fuel discrimination against them. We ended our performance with a short speech to the audience about the condition of refugees in the region, which received a positive reaction.
One year later, we were asked to participate in the Contemporary Art of Iraq exhibition at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, where we were invited to present our artwork. A documentary video of our performance ‘My Finger Didn’t Get Ink’ was shown at the festival.
