Syrian makes Great Wall image with olive kernels

DAMASCUS－Mazen Shaiban has been composing 3D paintings about life in old Damascus for over 25 years. With an aspiration to become an internationally renowned artist, he began to create artworks about world landmarks, including the Great Wall of China.

Over the last two decades, Shaiban has created artworks using various materials such as hay and oil, and the most recent are olive kernels.

"During the war that has engulfed Syria, I wanted to make something special through the olive kernels, because the olive is a symbol of peace and love, and our country needs peace and love," the 50-year-old artist says.

At a venue near the airport road in Damascus, Shaiban keeps some of his works, mostly 3D paintings about the ancient architecture of Damascus, such as the sites dating to the Umayyad caliphate and the Abbasid dynasty.

After making various paintings about Damascus and other Arab countries, the artist decided to do something more challenging. He started to create an art piece about the Great Wall of China.

At first, he spent a whole week just looking at photos of the Great Wall because he had never seen it in person. Still, it was hard for him to gain a complete understanding of the characteristics of the Great Wall. Despite the difficulties, he created the painting using thousands of olive kernels. He says it took him around 100 days to finish the piece, noting that it was one of the toughest artworks he has ever made.

He made the painting and other artworks at a sidewalk near a shop, which he rented after losing the print house he owned during the war.

"All these paintings have been done on a sidewalk. No artist in the world would spend a year and a half working on one painting in front of the people through all the seasons despite cold and heat," he says.

Shaiban says he admires Chinese architecture, hoping that one day he will be doing a 3D painting of the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

"I hope I can do more paintings about China because there are many significant and mesmerizing monuments that I admire," he says.

He says he hopes to travel to China to visit the monuments, particularly the Great Wall.

Shaiban is facing difficulty in getting enough olive kernels as they are being used to generate heat amid the scarcity of fuel in the country.

But he is determined to continue with his endeavor to create more artworks, saying that he wants people to see more about the beauty of the world from his works.

Xinhua