The notion of war permeates Karam’s entire body of work.
The selection of works on paper presented in this section is part of several hundred drawings and watercolours Karam produced during the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese conflict while he was staying in Reading, England as a refugee. His sketches combine military planes, tanks, bullets, guns and smoke with their human protagonists. Within this world, there are nevertheless a few sketches containing glimpses of absurdity, positivity and reflection through Karam’s characteristic elements; birds, flowers, light bulbs or the Thinker. Through these works, Karam counters the determinism of violence and war with an underlying fierce optimism, distancing us from the bleakness of stagnation.
He returned regularly to this theme, each time with a different nuanced approach.