Art created by Guantánamo Bay detainees to be shown in new ODU exhibition

A prayer cap.

Prayer beads.

A sponge.

Cardboard.

For the average person, these items are easy to come by.

That wasn’t always the case for Moath al-Alwi, a Yemeni citizen and prisoner at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. He had been captured near the Afghanistan border in December 2001, a few months after 9/11, and arrested but never charged with a crime. He was suspected of working for al-Qaida.

While imprisoned, al-Alwi and other detainees sang, and some taught themselves how to draw, paint and build furniture. Al-Alwi used prayer caps, cardboard and acrylic paint to create intricate miniature ships; some of the materials were traded among prisoners, said Cullen Strawn, Old Dominion University’s executive director for the arts.

The work of al-Alwi and five others is part of “Art from Guantánamo Bay,” a show at the university’s Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries on view through May 7. The show includes 101 pieces from al-Alwi and Ahmed Rabbani, who are current detainees, as well as former ones.

Work from Mansoor Adayfi is also on display. He was detained for 14 years and released in 2016. He wrote a 2021 memoir “Don’t Forget Us Here” about his experience, including torture. Adayfi participated in the university’s October literary festival and Strawn was able to talk to him about art and life after his release.

In January 2018, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep the prison camp open indefinitely. Three years later, President Joe Biden said closing the prison camp was his goal.

Jan. 11 was the 20th anniversary of the opening of the facility.

Most of the artwork was released by the detainees’ attorneys, but not before the pieces were combed for hidden messages. Cleared items were marked with an “Approved by US Forces” stamp.

In a sense, the stamp ruins the art, Strawn said, but it’s also part of the story.

“Some works have multiple stamps of approval on it, so if it’s a two-dimensional work, like a painting or a drawing, they might stamp it on the back and the ink might bleed through to the front.”

Strawn said materials were more accessible at one point — around 2012 in Camp VI, the maximum-security detention facility at Guantánamo. He called it a “golden era” because detainees could congregate, get a few more materials for their work, eat better food and have calls with their families back home.

“Good cardboard and other materials became their currency,” he said. “Moath might sell a chair or a shelf that he made to someone for a certain amount of cardboard.”

Also on display are handwritten copies of “The Milk and Honey Farms Feasibility Report,” a business plan created by five Yemeni detainees. The copies are inside the university’s MagicBox, an interactive display with a touchscreen that visitors can use to read it. Saifullah “Shasha” Paracha, a Pakistani businessman and detainee, taught fellow prisoners English and business and encouraged them to write the report. The detainees are not allowed to return to Yemen so they haven’t been able to start the project, Strawn said.

Music from the detainees’ countries, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan and Tajikistan, also plays throughout the galleries.

“Music adds sensory depth to the exhibition and offers a window into detainees’ aesthetics and humanity,” Strawn said.

Strawn wanted to bring the show to ODU after finding out about the artwork a few years ago. They were on display at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He reached out to art crime professor Erin Thompson in 2017, visited, and asked if they could work together and expand it into a traveling exhibition. He also worked with attorney Beth Jacob, who represents al-Alwi. Al-Alwi and four other men were approved for release by a government review panel this month. The New York Times reported that their release will likely take some time because the Biden administration has to find nations willing to take them.

Strawn thought the show would be a good fit for Old Dominion because it has multiple colleges, departments and programs. In addition, part of the galleries’ mission is to show contemporary art, including self-taught artists.

He said art creates a “rich discussion” around these topics.

“Art from Guantánamo Bay” offers a glimpse into the fears and hopes of the detainees as they waited to rejoin the outside world, Strawn said.

Muhammad Ansi painted a piece in 2016 that was inspired by the sea. Originally from Yemen, he was detained for nearly 15 years before being released in January 2017. Ansi learned to paint and draw while at Guantánamo. His painting, “Hands Holding Flowers through Bars,” speaks to endurance, physical and mental crises, and hope, Strawn said.

The men were held near the sea but their cages were covered by tarps, Strawn said. The tarps were removed for safety reasons in 2016 as Hurricane Matthew threatened Cuba. The detainees finally saw the ocean.

Art became a way for the men to temporarily forget the torture and incarceration, and discover ways to express themselves creatively.

Al-Alwi used soap as glue. He’d make chairs, tables and bookshelves and adhered them to the wall, Strawn said. He believes viewers will be impressed by the artwork, particularly al-Alwi’s ships.

“When you walk up to them, they’re just so magnificent,” Strawn said. “When you think of the materials that they had access to in order to make that, it’s very evident how inventive he is.”

A design for one of his ships was inspired by an eagle he saw flying as he looked out of a window.

“That became such an important symbol of freedom to him,” Strawn said. “In a lot of Muslim, Islamic cultures or societies, one is not really supposed to represent a living being, which is why you don’t see depictions of Allah like you see depictions of Jesus. This eagle was so important to him as a symbol of freedom that he negotiated that with himself and included the wings. That personal negotiation of religion is very interesting.”

Saleen Martin, 757-446-2027, saleen.martin@pilotonline.com

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If you go

When: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through May 7; reception at 6 p.m. Jan. 27

Where: Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Galleries, 4509 Monarch Way, Norfolk

Cost: Free

Details: tinyurl.com/GordonArtGalleries, artfromguantanamo.com, gordongalleries@odu.edu or 757-683-6271