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PAKISTAN
Hyder Shah
Dark Dream 1998
oil on canvas 68.5 x 53.2 cm

Hyder Shah was born in Pakistan in 1971, is a self-taught artist, and lives in Quetta, near the Afghanistan border. His painting shows a devastated world consumed by conflict in which children and babies are left homeless, naked, and starving amidst explosions, billowing smoke, twisted wires, collapsed cranes, a blasted landscape, and a city in flames. An hour glass sits in the middle, with an enigmatic hand above. The artist comments: ‘I feel that through overpopulation my country is facing great problems such as poverty, environmental degradation, and especially child labour, while ignoring true human development’.