Three Love Songs explores the multiple ways to use and manipulate images to create juxtapositions of meanings from the mundane to the extreme. This piece examines terror and love, and how façades are played through song, specifically Iraqi songs that were commissioned by Saddam Hussein, which were used to glorify the regime during his reign.

The installation syncs three stylized music videos (lounge, jazz and pop) that each features an archetypal western chanteuse: young, blonde, and seductive. Each video’s dramatic ‘look’ creates a different atmosphere; The lyrics are sung by the performers in Arabic (Iraqi dialect) and are subtitled in English and Arabic. The singers do not comprehend the content of the songs; instead, they are directed to perform, vocally and by gesture, as though the songs were traditional, passionate love songs. that underlines the uncomfortable juxtaposition – between the lush visual romanticism and the harsh meaning of the lyrics.

Lyrics:

Take us with you, and see how we are, lions, we never bow our heads at the time of battle
Our pride is as great as the mountains are high
Oh father of the two lions
Oh father of virility, nothing is as beautiful as your dress
Oh hero, that never slept a night.
If the right hand gets tired, the left hand will fight and if the left gets tired, our teeth will carry the sword
The sea is thirsty, it drinks only from you
You are the light of our eyes and we are the light for you

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