The illustrator collaborated with Syrian writer Marwan Hisham (a pseudonym), who sent her mobile-phone photos from Syria that she used as the basis for a striking and moving series of illustrations for a Vanity Fair feature.
It’s a continuation of Discordia, the work on riot-torn Greece that Crabapple did with Laurie Penny in 2012.
In an excellent PBS interview, Crabapple reflects on the collaboration.
Your illustrations are unique from the graphic photos and video that depict much of the Syrian war and refugee crisis in the news. What do you want to add to representations of war?
People live lives, even in war zones. Sometimes, when we just see photos of atrocity, we forget that these are humans in that atrocity, who scam and love and watch satellite TV and buy vegetables at the market and love their kids. Me and Marwan tried to show daily life, real life, of which war was a part but not the whole.
A question for Marwan: What do you want the world to know about recent events in Syria?
Living under ISIS rule doesn’t necessarily mean you are pro-ISIS. It’s absolutely the same for people who are living under the government or rebels’ territories. Many people don’t have the money to leave and the world has been hard on judging them. I always felt committed to give them a voice.
Illustrator draws out Syrian life under Islamic State rule
[Corinne Segal/PBS]
