Ken Clarry

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As the starting point for this work, after contact, I used an image found on the Internet made by the Syrian photographer Bassam Khabieh.  The figures in the image appear unconcerned by what is taking place around them, chaos, explosions, fire and, one imagines, the loud noise that would accompany such violence.  The rubble beneath the feet of the man would have made walking extremely difficult, especially carrying a child, yet he looks up, beyond us, not down.  The girl stares directly at ‘us’.  These eyes are what function as what Derrida calls the ‘force’ and ‘power’ of an image and Barthes calls ‘Punctum’.  

The eyes seem to portray the strength and experience of a child of perhaps 3-4 years who sees, and has seen, more than is shown or can be seen.   I produced a series of static images, made from Bassam’s original image, that ‘move’ towards abstraction and fragmentation.  These 'new' images are then used as a basis for a video that I linked with my second found image, that of Aeham Ahmad playing his composition Ends in the streets of Yamouk where he then lived with his family.