Sara Shamma is a renowned painter whose
works can be found in both public and private collections around the globe.
Shamma was born in Damascus, Syria (1975) to a Syrian father and Lebanese
mother. She graduated from the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts,
University of Damascus in 1998. She moved to London in 2016 under the auspices
of an Exceptional Talent Visa where she currently lives and works. Shamma’s
practice focuses on death and humanity expressed mainly through self-portraits and
children painted in a life-like visceral way. Her works can be divided into
series that reflect often prolonged periods of research, sometimes extending
over years. Sara shares her story with us in this interview. Here is a conversation with Sara on her work and art.
What set the ball rolling on your
engagement with art?
I started at a very early age. I used to
like painting a lot when I was four and I was encouraged a lot by my family. I
used to paint on the ground and the furniture. My parents were very happy and
supportive and never told me off. When I turned 14, I realized this was my
path, and thought that I could do anything I wanted in art. I entered the
Institute of Fine Arts in Damascus for two years, and then entered the
University of Damascus for four years to study painting. I graduated in 1998. I
started doing exhibitions in Damascus, Lebanon, and Europe, USA, Canada, and
other countries, from thereon.
Your art engages with a range of
themes - but the common factor is the portrayal of humanity. Can you speak
about your artistic inclinations and talk about what motivates them?
I have always been interested in human
beings and humanity. Since a very young age, I used to gaze at the hands or
eyes of any person I met. Any human being is a whole universe to discover. That
is why I was interested in the human being, their state of mind, and everything
related to their state of expression. One of these themes is self-portraiture.
When I discovered that I could do all this gazing and diving into myself before
the mirror, the mirror became my best friend. One human being stands for
humanity and for the whole universe. This defines my main area of interest in
painting.
Aside from thematic exhibits talking
about Birth, Death, and Love, you also put together a very evocative exhibit
called “World Civil War Portraits.” Can you tell us about this curation?
I did this in 2014-2015. I was living in
Lebanon then. I moved out of Damascus in the end of 2012 to Lebanon, to my
mother's town because my mother is Lebanese, and I moved there with my children
because of the war in Syria. I moved with my children, and my husband continued
to live in Damascus and visited us periodically. That was the story of most
families in Syria - the families moved to Lebanon and the husbands remained in
Syria because their businesses were there. The war was raging, and I was
emotionally affected by everything that was happening. I used to smell blood
all the time even when there wasn't any blood around me. I heard the sounds of
war all the time. I put these series together at that point. A huge war was
happening in my country.
Right now, you’re showcasing Modern
Slavery in London. How did that series come about?
The main thing that inspired my exhibition
is an incident that happened in 2014 when ISIS kidnapped Yazidi women in
Northern Iraq and Syria. They also kidnapped a host of other women from other
backgrounds and communities. These women were treated as sex slaves and were
auctioned like in the olden time slave trade. I found a contract online that
talked about this practice and was drawn to focus on this. I have always tried
to understand the situation of the domestic workers in the Middle East. They
never had any rights and were treated as slaves. I drew portraits of many of
them. I couldn’t do anything in 2014, but when I came to London, when King’s
College London approached me to be an artist in residence with them, I thought
about this topic. It seemed like a good way to collaborate. I collaborated with
the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, with Dr Sian Oram,
who was interested in the issue and was also doing research. She collaborated
with the Helen Bamber Foundation which supported women who had traumatic pasts.
I met 8-9 women through the Foundation and interacted with them through
interviews. Dr Sian trained me on how to interview them sensitively and with
respect for all that they had undergone. It was very disturbing, and I couldn’t
sleep. I began imagining all the voices and smells – it is what I do. I was
inspired by their stories when I worked on my paintings thereafter, and I tried
to communicate the feelings behind the stories that I had learned from these
women.
Have you had any resistance in
response to the art you create? How have you responded to it?
I
have not faced “resistance” to my work in that sense of the term, but it has
definitely been empowering to see people being moved by the art. Sometimes, I
see people looking at the art and crying, or tearing up – and that has been
very powerful because it really means that it has had an impact.
