Hayv Kahraman
Lethal injection, 2021
Oil on linen
127 x 127 cm
50 x 50 in
50 x 50 in
Copyright The Artist
Further images
Lethal injection (2021) is a piece that is riddled with controversy. The viewer is being directly looked at by a woman who is cradling a mortar, a weapon, as if...
Lethal injection (2021) is a piece that is riddled with controversy. The viewer is being directly looked at by a woman who is cradling a mortar, a weapon, as if she is cradling her baby. Kahraman grew up constantly seeing mortars as this one during the war in Iraq, which got really ingrained into her subconscious and her memory.
With this particular painting Kahraman had inoculation in her mind, as in the physical act of creating a wound and injecting it with a foreign substance, something that is Other, that is outside of the Self. Laying this framework on top of migrant consciousness to investigate if this is how society perceives immigrants and migrants. Kahraman started questioning those ideas and - physically so in the painting - as she was literally removing paint from the figure’s skin, in particular on her arms, which is historically how people were inoculated.
With this particular painting Kahraman had inoculation in her mind, as in the physical act of creating a wound and injecting it with a foreign substance, something that is Other, that is outside of the Self. Laying this framework on top of migrant consciousness to investigate if this is how society perceives immigrants and migrants. Kahraman started questioning those ideas and - physically so in the painting - as she was literally removing paint from the figure’s skin, in particular on her arms, which is historically how people were inoculated.