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AFP
Hammam al-Alil, Iraq
Mustafa al-Tha'i worked in secret at night, using his brushes and pencils to record the violence he saw during the day under the Islamic State group's brutal reign in Iraq.
The bloodied body of a man suspended by a foot, another lying in a pool of blood with his severed head on his back, a woman with her face burned by acid -- these are just some of the scenes captured by Tha'i.
The 240 paintings and drawings -- which Tha'i composed from the time IS seized his hometown of Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul, in 2014 until Iraqi forces recaptured it in late 2016 -- are an exhibition of horror.
"IS is the enemy of the arts, the enemy of life, so I told myself that whenever I saw one of their crimes or something they did, I would relate it," he said.
"There were no journalists and they did not allow photographs, so I recorded the image in my head and at night at home, I painted," said the 58-year-old, an oven and boiler repairman by trade who has been"addicted" to drawing since childhood.
"The army is fighting against (IS) with weapons. Me, it's with my brush, my colours, my drawings, my paintings," Tha'i said as he sat cross-legged in his living room, drawing board in his lap.
At a time when art was banned by the militants -- who view depictions of people as contrary to Islam -- and drawing materials could not be found, Tha'i drew from his old stocks of paints, papers and pencils to"resist."
The pieces are simple and colourful, and each one tells a story.
"This child is a Christian," he explained, pointing to a portrait of a weeping girl.
"They took her when she was 12 years old. She was married to one of them, who left her to another, who married her" -- something that happened"four or five times," Tha'i said.
"I met her when I was in the hospital. She was crying. She had bruises on her face, wounds on the hands and body. I took a sheet of my medical record. I drew on it."
Today, he keeps his artwork in boxes as testimony to what he saw, and paints"what I have in front of me, what I find beautiful."
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25/05/2017
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