Dead Fish

The artwork ‘What About The Dead Fish?’ was created by Shamsia Hassani, who is the first female graffiti artist in Afghanistan. This drawing is an example of what she calls a “dreaming graffiti” artwork, which she creates by painting on pictures of places in Afghanistan she would like to visit but is unable to due to the warfare. It was made using spray paint in 2011 on the ruins of a Russian cultural centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. The artwork depicts a scene of a woman in a burqa sitting on the stairs alone by a wall damaged by warfare. The text next to the woman reads “The water can come back to a dried-up river, but what about the fish that died?”. The dimensions of the artwork is unknown, however, based on the picture that was taken
The shapes are created by two colors, and defined by black lines to add details, such as the netting of the burqa. There is little to no shading, however, white is used in certain areas, such as the sleeves, to give a sense of dimension. This shift in color further adds detail to the artwork. The simplicity of the artwork shows us that Hassani is not going for a realistic looking piece, and is choosing to focus on communicating her idea in an expressionistic manner. The artist uses only two main colors, blue and white, which creates a strong contrast against the dark background. The bright shades make the subject stand out and brings a sense of beauty in the otherwise damaged scene. The fact that she uses only two colors gives a unified and uniform look to the artwork. It relates different parts of the painting to each other. The location that Hassani chose to display her painting speaks volumes for the message she’s trying to convey. The background shows a building damaged by warfare, with rocks covering the ground and smashed walls. The distressed wall shows the situation Afghanistan was in, and adds a depressive and lonely feeling to the artwork. There is a lot of empty space in the artwork, which isolates the main subject in the painting, and gives us a sense of