looted

Born in Casablanca, Fatima Killeen is a Canberra based who studied at Les Beaux Arts in Morocco, the Corcoran School of Art in Washington and then at The Canberra School of Art (Australian National University). Fatima’s work employs a range of disciplines and explores issues of injustice, war, peace, and oppression, along with themes relating to identity. Her exquisitely detailed prints often depict the intricate beauty of traditional Islamic design with disturbing juxtapositions of political and social upheaval. In Looted, Killeen describes the 2003 looting of Iraq’s National Museum in Baghdad as ‘a massive threat to Iraq’s cultural heritage. In the ancient past, Iraq was the birthplace of cities — a centre of world civilisation and cultural exchange. Valuable historical artefacts dating back thousands of years in Baghdad’s main museum were stolen or destroyed by looters. The image portrays a forensic fingerprint defacing the Islamic identity beneath. This unforgivable crime was committed while the so called “peace-keepers” stood by to watch.’