Deryk's Trip to Iraq in 2002

Gallery of Video Stills from Deryk's Trip to Baghdad
Photographs of Deryk's Sculpture

Report from Deryk in Baghdad
(Oct 25, 2002 -- Part Two)

I could easily spend another three months here as I want to follow the project all the way through to the end. But I know that is not possible and that I have been assured that they will supervise it for me. One of Iraq's greatest sculptors has said that he will take on the responsibility and that I have nothing to worry about. He is a very good man. His english is very good and he has taught me a great deal about bronze and also about being an artist. He is from the old school. He is seventy five. The history of bronze casting started in Iraq. No real surprise there really, but it is interesting that it was lost and it was Mr. Mohamad Rennie who revived it and brought it back in the early fifties.He has travelled the world and laughs at how today they pour bronze as if they were dressed for a walk on the moon. He feels that the smoke and danger of the liquid bronze is part of the creative process and should not be isolated from the artists hands and legs. He has the scars to prove it! I am learning so much and have much more to learn. Just when I think I have the process figured out, I see something that puzzles me. Part of the process that doesn't make sense and they have to take me back a few steps and make me understand what I am looking at. It is so primitive but they can cast anything here. Anything.

Material that has been used for centuries is still claimed to be the best and strongest. For example they use a part of the date tree for strands of fibre to make the mold stronger. They say it is still the best.

Even the automotive shops in the area around the foundry have an amazing ability to take everything apart, repair or replace the broken part and get it all together again. Something with a million pieces such as a transmission is simply taken apart on the ground beside everything else that is going on in the street. If they can't get the part they have a thousand little shops with lathes that machine the part to precise requirements and presto. They have the part they need. They are so resourceful and creative. Nothing is wasted. Nothing. Welding shops are everywhere. They can fix anything and do fix it instead of buying a new part. They put our recycling to shame. And they are up to speed with computers and electronic things as well. They are just as comfortable in fixing the inner workings of these things as they are about building a new muffler from scraps.

The people still flock to the streets at night and along the river. Sometimes there is gunfire in the city at night. In the evening, I was sitting having a picnic by the Tigres, and we watched hot bullets stream over our heads into the sky. I don't know where they fall to the ground but I assume they do somewhere and are harmless. The true meaning of "surreal" struck me. We drank our tea.

There is a younger, more adventurous group that comes out at night and they know how to have fun. They hang on the sides of cars and trucks and shout and sing. They are full of life and daring. All males

I have been to some parts of Baghdad that are much more upscale than most of the areas one sees. The media generaly reports that these places are so exotic and rich. I had a delicious icecream cone at one of these very nice restuarants and it still struck me as being very rough by our standards. There are mercedes and other nice cars in these parts but not the way the media portrays it for us. When you walk around the corner to the side streets you still find modest homes by our standards with scruffy children playing simple games on the dusty road

Chicken Cordon Blue in one of these "nice' restuarants is around three or four dollars. It is beyond the reach of most Iraqi's. You can fill up the tank of your car for one dollar. Half that price if you get the cheap stuff. A taxi ride around the city costs about fifty cents for an average trip of twenty minutes. I had a small pizza the other night and it cost me about one dollar and fifty cents.

There is so much more hope here than in previous trips. But also the cloud of war is above them at all times. Nothing new. Many Iraqi's have had this over their heads most of their adult lives. The bombing has not stopped since the gulf war. They have a tremendous spiritual connection to God. They know who he is. And it gives them strength

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