The Skyline College Art Gallery held an art exhibition titled “Civilization Blues” on Feb. 22 from 4-6 p.m. The exhibition will be open to the public Monday through Friday, 12-4 p.m. in the gallery until March 21.
The curator of the art exhibition, Art History teacher Kathy Zarur, created the concept and selected the artists for the exhibition.
Professor Zarur stated that “Civilization Blues” is a chance for people to see the dark side of “civilization.” As a society increasingly becomes more modernized, the division in classes becomes more apparent; with the higher classes gaining more wealth over time, and the lower classes slowly losing it while further advancing the entire society. Essentially the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Professor Zarur also mentioned how she wants people to understand why ancient history is still relevant to our lives today, and how the issues going on in present day have been slowly becoming bigger, specifically in relation to the events occurring down in the Congo where the mining of the element cobalt has been wearing down the forest and its original properties.
One of the goals of the exhibition, Professor Zarur said, is to help people realize that art should be left to each person’s own interpretation.
“You don’t necessarily have to understand the art in the way that the artist is thinking about, you can simply enjoy the art for what it looks like,” Professor Zarur said.
Another topic Professor Zarur covered is that a person does not have to be extremely interested in art or be an art student to understand what the artist is trying to convey with their piece. Unlike other subjects that are fact based, art can reach a person and teach them the same thing on a more emotional level.
“This can be interesting for people who are interested in urban planning. For example, with Ebti’s project, or mining, or the experience of immigrants,” Professor Zarur said.

One exhibit—created by the artist, Ebti—was a pile of red bricks, which, according to her, symbolizes the destruction of the pyramids and the informal housing built in Cairo due to the exponentially increasing population. Since the building is happening so rapidly, the buildings end up looking like a pile of bricks compared to a properly constructed housing complex.
After explaining her exhibit, Ebti said the exhibition is about how newer civilizations tear down older civilizations in order to increase progress in a new society.
“It’s about humanity in general,” Ebti said. “It’s just about how we as humans extract from the earth, and destroy our own things, and other people destroy their own things.”
Another exhibit in the gallery are paintings created by the artist, Asma Kazmi. The significance of these paintings is they were created with a precious blue stone called lapis lazuli, a stone that was worth more than gold due to its use in the creation of sacred objects. The stone relates to the idea of civilizations always mining further deeper into the earth to reach precious material; a process that will, no doubt, continue-on till the end of time. The paintings show the trade routes of the precious stone as it made its way to the artists in Venice, the opening of the mines where the stones are found, and speculative images of people working with the stone.
Kazmi stated she created the paint herself by grinding the stone and extracting the pigment through an ancient recipe she learned that was used in Iraq in the 1800’s.
During the exhibition, one of the artists, Shirin Khalatbari, was crushing her exhibit as part of her performance. Her exhibit featured ceramic clothing, that although strong enough to hold themselves up, could be easily crushed when force is applied.
According to Professor Zarur, Khalatbari’s exhibit is to show the experience of immigration. It shows how, when people immigrate without documents, they become a person who lives in a glass house. She stated how these people lose agency over their lives because they cannot do what they want to do out of fear of what might happen if they are caught.
Overall, “Civilization Blues” seeks to show that societies are constantly dying and growing out of the idea of advancing society. The exhibits show us how nothing lasts forever, but no matter how old, some things can teach us lessons for the rest of time.