Judgement

Artist Statement:

I fled Iran in an attempt to save my soul. I ended up being swallowed up by water when my boat, the vehicle I falsely imagined would take me to freedom, threw me into the deep, dark, blue-black ocean. I was seized by the ocean’s monsters. It was too difficult to get out using the ropes from the boat. It was impossible to distinguish the ropes from the deep ocean plants. I became the color of the ocean, no one could tell us apart.

Everything happened in slow-motion, until time stopped. The only thing I could see were the yellow eyes of the ocean’s monsters, sniffing the bubbles from my breath. Their hateful gaze had shiny, sharp teeth that were chewing on my soul. I could hear a message in their eyes asking me “Why did you come to our home?”

Judgement speaks to my feelings about the Australian policy that has cast adrift so many souls in Nauru and Manus.

Rhythm, repetition, ropes, drowning, entanglement, imminent death, piercing yellow eyes blaming me, blaming everyone who was escaping. It captured us in a dreamy, nightmarish atmosphere and devoured us like we were drifting and held imprisoned in the ocean for six years or more.

The Australian government has vicious, sharp white teeth and a wicked grin; it is the root of this evil.