The Walls of Season 4: Baghdad

Walls play a major role in all three plays of our Season 4: Don’t Look Away. In Dog Act, the legacy of a breach in a walled city defines the conflict. In Menders, we follow the arc of two student guards watching the wall of a post-apocalyptic city. In Ajax in Iraq, the walls are more metaphorical, as cracks appear in the borders between past and present, soldier and civilian, and heroism and cruelty.

Much of our marketing discussion has therefore centered around walls as a visual motif for the season. So I was particularly struck by this article Kelly O’Donnell forwarded me about art on the blast walls of Baghdad. As photo-essayist Holly Pickett writes:

Baghdad’s blast walls are a blank canvas. They reflect Iraqis’ shared history — both proud and painful facts of life here in the capital.

Beauty and violence; security and anxiety; the art in her photos connects with the themes of our season in a powerful way. We’ll talk more on this blog about the further variations of this theme, but first, check out her photos and let us know what you think. Do you know of other examples of walls being repurposed as canvases for art?