Iraqi Art Alert: If the Shoe Fits, Sculpt It

A copper-coated statue of a giant shoe was unveiled in the Iraqi city of Tikrit Tuesday in honor of Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at George Bush last month on international television. The statue's creator, Baghdad-based artist Laith al-Amari, had some fitting helpers when molding its plexiglass body--local orphans, many of whose parents had been killed as a direct or indirect result of U.S. intervention in that region of Iraq. Al-Zaidi's famous words to Bush, "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq," have made him something of a folk hero in the region, and the community of Tikrit has rallied around the statue, which al-Amari says "is a source of pride for all Iraqis... it's not a political work."

And indeed, the statue and what it symbolizes seems to be a true uniter in a world wracked with violence and narrow minds. Al-Zaidi's shoe-tossing is widely seen as high political theater by his countrymen: shoe-waving has become a rallying cry around the Middle East, with protestors publicly beating photos of both ex-President Bush as well as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the streets with their footwear. Al-Zaidi had previously inspired much in the way of monetary and verbal tributes--one rich Saudi apparently offered $10 million for one of the thrown shoes (which unfortunately were incinerated in the off-chance that they contained dirty bombs), and an Egyptian man offered his 20-year-old daughter to be al-Zaidi's bride. But this is the first, and probably not the last, official piece of lasting folk art in the war-torn nation for which al-Zaidi protested so memorably.

AP Photo