Daniel Heyman has uncovered the faces of the innocent and is speaking for those who have no voice.
A Philadelphia painter and printmaker, he listened first-hand to interviews by Iraqis who had been falsely arrested, detained and abused at the hands of the U. S. military at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. As he listened to them describe the violence and indignities they suffered, he drew their faces, and incorporated their words into a series of paintings that give voice and identity to individuals who previously were anonymous.
From those experiences, he produced a collection of paintings that are haunting and revealing. The exhibit, “Bearing Witness,” was on display at Linfield College March 28-April 30 and was also the focus of this year’s Frazee Lecture, “Social Justice and Spirituality.”
You won’t find Heyman at public protests, carrying placards and shouting slogans. His art is not meant to be political, nor is it meant as a solution or problem-solving device.
“Art takes a lot longer to make and digest than politics,” he said. “By the time you are finished with the art, politics has moved on.”
In 2006, Heyman was invited to join a human rights attorney and travel to Amman, Jordan, to observe her interviews with Abu Ghraib victims. That started a three-year project that took him from Amman to Istanbul, Turkey, where he listened to dozens of victims describe what happened to them. As he heard how they were arrested, beaten and tortured, he drew the faces of the detainees, and soon began weaving part of their testimony into the paintings, to give voice to what they had endured.
“The face was important, but the story they were telling me was really meaningful and I had to bring that story back to the U.S. in pictures,” he said. “The thing I could do was allow these people to tell their story. They told what it was like to be arrested under false pretenses and what it is like to be let free with a military judge giving you paperwork that says we apologize for arresting you by mistake and you are free to go.
“We have a lot of high rhetoric about war in this country,” he added. “I hope people leave the exhibit with some understanding that it’s not all rhetoric, that war has real effects on real people’s lives that are devastating.”
As a teacher, Heyman hopes to instill passion into his students and show them that nothing is impossible in terms of the kind of subject matter they want to conquer.
“I tell them that ‘you can control what we are going to talk about by what work you put on the wall. If you want to talk about something, that is what you need to put up on the wall.’ I want my work to inspire young artists and hopefully they will challenge me back.”
Heyman has used a similar process to paint portraits of seven poor, incarcerated African American fathers who were making an effort to turn their lives around. He has also been working on a project with female veterans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars who have all been victims of military sexual abuse and he previously did a project with homeless Vietnam veterans.
The Abu Ghraib exhibit has traveled to eight states to date and Heyman hopes that those who see it realize that war has devastating effects on the lives of real people.
More information on Heyman and the exhibit can be found:
http://www.detaineeproject.org/
Heyman File
Heyman earned an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and is a cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College. He is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow in fine arts and a 2009 Pew Fellowship in the Arts recipient. His work has been included in many regional and national group shows he work is include in many public collections. “Bearing Witness,” the Abu Ghraib exhibit has traveled to eight states to date. Currently, Heyman teaches at Rhode Island School of Design, Princeton University, and Swarthmore College. He is an officer of the Philagrafika Board of Directors.
