Cyprus

Between 1945 and 1949, 59000 Jewish emigrates came through Cyprus to the new land of Israel. They were detained in Cyprus by the British authorities, mainly at the Karaolos camp in Famagusta, in an attempt to regulate the numbers flowing into Israel. The Karaolos camp has become a landmark in the history of the establishment of the new State of Israel and is visited and commemorated often by those who were detained there. These people lived under dire conditions, housed in nissan huts and tents provided by the British militia, surrounded by barbed wire and were vigilantly kept under surveillance. The painting is by an artist-detainee who wished to record the adversity of life in the camps. An area of red barren earth is surrounded by barbed wire, a watch tower and a guard rising on the left hand side of the picture. Uncomfortable humble white tents constitute the homes of the detainees who shared a communal life. Two indistinct figures sit in front of their tents. Through the use of colour, the artist successfully conveys a sense of misery experienced by those in the camp. The abrupt erection of a barbed wire and a watch tower under the skyline provides a bold statement on the severity of conditions prevailing in total institutions such as prisons, concentration camps and detention centres.