Ongoing...
مستمر
Digital Drawing Series
2011-2015
Most of the Ongoing series was created and published on social media between 2011 and 2012, while Hijazi was living in Damascus during the first two years of the Syrian revolution. At a time of escalating violence, censorship, and political repression, social media became an alternative platform for the circulation of digital political art.
What began online later found its way into books, museums, publications, and international exhibitions. The series was part of a broader movement of works shared by Syrian artists through social media, reflecting a moment when artistic practices circulating online began to move beyond Syria and beyond the screen.
’I purposely did not include pictures of the president or any elements related specifically to Syria in the series. I wanted this artwork to be about any conflict situation with accompanying humanitarian issues.
However these illustrations were born out of my experience in Syria, and I present an aspect of my identity in the illustrations: the pale colors I experienced in my city. Those dull colors come from the socialist regime of our youth.
For my films, which are mostly animated, we work on concepts of character design, i.e. the visual representations of character development.
For Ongoing, I used animation software and the digitizer. Creating these illustrations in Syria was not easy. I knew that at any time that authorities could come to my house and demand to see what I was working on. However it’s safer doing digital art - you can hide the files on your computer and script easily if necessary.,
'It is not merely the war that is an ongoing process – it is also the continuing cycle of violence and her own process of finding a diasporic identity between her childhood of being taught to think in terms of the regime’s systems, the traumas of war and her new-found freedom.,