Water Task

Water’s critical role in life as a basic necessity and one that can never be taken for granted, even in modern cities such as Beirut, provide the inspiration for this thought-provoking artwork for sale by Fanny Seller. The artist created the piece at the height of a blistering summer, when Lebanon’s capital was also hit by a build-up of garbage, choosing acrylics mixed with plenty of water as her medium to create a link with the title of the piece and its theme.

Dominating the work is a girl picking up a large receptacle of water from outside a building, highlighting a lack of running water. Here, Fanny draws on her time at Mansion House, a collective for artists, where she witnessed plants and trees struggling to survive in the heat. Dry pastels in a shade of blue are used to convey the parched leaves and brittle branches of the tree, while the choice of her protagonist relays the message that children are the most vulnerable when the elements we need to survive are in short supply.

KAYANY FOUNDATION

Kayany Foundation is a Lebanese non-governmental organization founded in 2013 in response to the Syrian crisis. Kayany operates educational programs for Syrian refugee children and youth residing in the informal tented settlements (ITSs). In partnership with the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service at AUB, the foundation established GHATA portable schools in the Beqaa valley. With this effective and sustainable school design, Kayany took a leading role in bringing education to “OUT OF SCHOOL” refugees. Its projects and programs have been expanding ever since.