Disputas: Dler Mariam Dalo

Halo of Shame 

Language loss as a result of political dominance, occupation, and displacement is a common experience for oppressed peoples. Shwan Dler Qaradaki’s project Halo of Shame examines how the ongoing political suppression of Kurdish—the artist’s mother tongue—has shaped his artistic practice, and what visual languages remain available to a Kurdish artist. Through a deep engagement with both Western classical art and Islamic miniature painting, Qaradaki has developed a visual world that exists at the intersection of East and West, past and present, object and subject. In doing so, he seeks to cultivate a decolonial visual language capable of embracing the complex layers of his identity and experience.

Art offers another language where verbal expression is denied. It provides a possibility to articulate anger and grief over the loss of language and cultural identity. Halo of Shame is therefore not only a meditation on loss, but also an attempt to reclaim dignity and voice. The project aims to dissolve the boundaries between language and image, text and drawing, and to open a space for both the restitution of Kurdish language and a deeper understanding of Kurdish identity and cultural heritage.

The central questions guiding the project have been: How can contemporary art explore, process, and convey the language loss experienced by marginalized and oppressed groups? How can the experience of living between two or more languages become a resource in the creation of images? And what kinds of images emerge from this process?

Through drawings in watercolor and ink, text, video and voice, Qaradaki has investigated the role of visual art in addressing marginalized experiences. The project comprises 33 drawings (270 x 113 cm), four video essays, a podcast series entitled An Aura of Humiliation, and a book entitled Sarin.