Artist Lecture: Waafa Bilal Response

When I first looked up Waafa Bilal's work on his website I was unenthusiastic about it. And my questions reflected that. I asked about his use of art historical paintings and other things like that. Then his lecture was much different than I had expected. I was interested in hearing about his process of different works and his humor was engaging. His explanations for Domestic Tension were great. I loved his "conflict zone vs. comfort zone" concept. Bilal was reaching people in their homes, where they are most comfortable. He compared this to how the media didn't report all of the Iraqi civilian death counts even though the number was very high. This knowledge, Bilal thinks, would upset Americans (as it should upset anyone) and the media leaving it out is to make Americans feel comfortable with the war. To leave the war humanless. So Bilal came into participants' homes and faced them. Bilal put a face to all the nameless deaths of Iraqi civilians. He was speaking out for them. This is a theme or motif behind all of the work that Bilal spoke of. I enjoyed "Shoot an Iraqi" the best for its interaction with the public. I think that his concept and work came out very clearly. Many other works either confused me in one way (the video game was clear but hard for me to communicate with others the exact point) or wasn't strong enough (tattooing the invisible, nameless victims with invisible ink...). But "Shoot an Iraqi" is clear. The act of American's obsession to shoot things is clear. And the mode of having a paint ball gun hooked up to the internet is exactly the key to making the art accessible which Bilal needed to prove his point. He wanted all people to know about his project.

Three words I'd use to describe Bilal's work: political, topical, interactive and maybe performance

I was impressed with his work and perseverance through many failed projects. His work online was thoroughly unimpressive, but after having him talk about all of his work, extremely satisfying. He said something about even with many projects that didn't work out and had many people against him is much better than making art and having no one react to his work. And after talking to friends after the lecture, everyone had different opinions on the work he showed us. So even to open minded, art school, photography people there was still debate of whether or not Bilal's work was offensive. I think thats a sign of a great photographer.