‘Crying eye’ by Muhammad Ansi —Courtesy John Jay College
It is remarkable, then, to see the ingenuity that has gone into a painstakingly detailed model ship created by Moath al Alwi by using scraps of cardboard and rags, with a sail bearing a military stamp, or in Khalid Qasim’s model of a ‘Hall of Enlightenment’ bearing the phrase: “Time is invaluable”. A painting by Muhammad Ansi shows hands with flowers behind jail cell bars, but there is an evident pencil outline of his initial drawing, which depicted hands reaching to the bars. In Qasim’s depiction of the ocean, there are shark fins visible above the surface. Ammar al Baluchi’s drawing is striking: it is a series of colourful dots, drawn over and over again, as al Baluchi tried to describe his condition of vertigo. One of two works by Ahmed Rabbani, a Pakistani detainee, depicts glassware: a still life that wouldn’t look out of place in an art class, but belies the fact that Rabbani is one of the prison’s most well-known hunger strikers.
The curatorial decisions behind this exhibit are significant. In any art show, there are detailed guides; but the curators kept information minimal, and chose not to write about the accusations against the detainees. “I’m also a lawyer as well as an art historian,” Thompson said, “and I know that seven out of the eight prisoners never even had charges filed against them. That’s just me proving my ‘innocent until proven guilty’ idea.”
Since the exhibit opened, Thompson has received more art and images from Guantanamo that she is currently archiving. And while she believes the decision to stop artworks from leaving the prison is “horrifying”, lawyers of detainees have told her the attention has renewed focus on the prison.
“It’s been astounding to me how many people have come to the exhibit and said ‘What do you mean Guantanamo is still open?’ It’s almost like it’s become this forgotten issue in America,” Thompson said.
It also seems to be just as forgotten in Pakistan, where Guantanamo or the Pakistanis held there are largely missing from political or social discourse. Sullivan-Bennis, whose clients include Saifullah Paracha, who at 70 is the eldest prisoner at Guantanamo, said there was nothing to show that the Pakistani government was pushing for a trial or release of any of the men held there. Paracha, who has heart disease and diabetes, has had two heart attacks at Guantanamo and is yet to be charged with a crime 14 years after he was first captured. It’s almost as if once the men disappeared over the seas, they went away forever.
Saba Imtiaz is a freelance journalist currently based in the Middle East.
Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018