• Parts: 1
• Subject: Novels
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: First
• Size: 14x22 cm
• Number of Pages: 152
• Language: Arabic

Portraits carry many expressive features, the fear that appears in the facial contours, in the sunken strokes of color, that strange mixture. Harmony carries dissonance within it. This chromatic being prompts you to question the existential anxiety that inhabits the portraits. It is impossible to stand before any of these works and not feel a part of yourself in them; you see a piece of yourself in the form of color. They are like mirrors, placing you face to face with the fears churning in your heart.

Exile throws open its doors, giving me the chance to see all the brokenness within me, to stand face to face with the landmarks of my defeat. I remembered Julia Domna's words about me acting as a jailer to the portraits, sealing the exits and leaving no room for salvation. She told me: 'You don't see the features of freedom apparent on the faces of the protestors outside.' Her specter pulled me from my darkness and drove me to paint a portrait of her, one I had promised in our last conversation—a portrait of a woman with the features of a city.