For both artists, their paintings hold a certain tension; the picture is not totally bleak, there is a certain hope which persists through the pessimism. In Azzam’s work, there is a kind of organicism which exists in his paintings as buildings begin to take forms vaguely reminiscent of biological tissues rather than concrete. This restores life to the scene and conveys the potential for growth from the ruin. In Piper’s work, coloured light strikes the buildings in a manner which harks back to his earlier abstract work, and which gives the scene a vibrancy that gestures towards a less grey future. Even in Azzam’s generally monotone paintings, there are subtle hints of pastel yellow in illuminated windows and powder blue skies which in a similar way, bring an effervescence to the misery that, as in Piper’s work, restores a sense of optimism to a landscape dominated by the sorrow of war. Tom West Student Ambassador
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