Who says that prisoners are hopeless, thoughtless & heartless criminals? In Syria, some of the prisoners have a patient & creative side to them, so much so that one of the prisons has opened a shop within the prison. A shop dedicated to bead work by inmates. So instead of pumping iron, joining a gang or trying to break out, they spend their time making all sorts of beautiful things from beads. They make bags, wall hangings, lamps and these very interesting purses. These particular purses were made especially for Kate & myself, it has both our names in Arabic. The lady who used to help around at my grandmothers (Zahra Akbik, May God rest her soul) house had a son in prison and when I saw her purse that had a pattern of a gun and an “I love you mum” written on it I just had to ask her to make some for us. So the next time she went to visit her son she put in our request and a week later they were made. We had about 10 made but now we only have a couple left in FEN but im trying to order some more as they have been very popular. Some come with patterns of guns, some with flowers, flying birds and even Quranic verses.
If Damien Hirst put his name on this it would be in the Tate.
For us this is art, anything creative that is made by hand is art, no matter who created it.
Fen 