Murad Subay (born July 3, 1987 in Dhamar) is a Yemeni contemporary artist, street artist and a political activist who has launched several street art campaigns of which society engagement marked one of their important elements. He first started to paint on the streets after the revolution of 2011, in a campaign he called "Color the Walls of Your Street".
He became widely known as an activist after launching several street art campaigns that criticized the political situation in his country and the conflicts which broke out in 2015 in Yemen. He always paints in the light of day and invites people to join him paint openly in the streets. People from different backgrounds and ages have joined him in his campaigns to express their own views around the political scene in Yemen. The influence of these campaigns spread to other cities such as Sana'a, Taiz, Aden, Ibb and Alhudaydah where similar campaigns were launched soon after. Subay has been compared to fellow street artist Banksy.
Early life and education
Murad Subay was born in Dhamar, Yemen on July 3, 1987. He was raised there until the age of 6, before his family moved to live in the capital Sana'a. He lived in Sana'a with his mother and six siblings. Murad used to draw at school, but he only became interested in art in the age of 14 when he painted his first sketch and received encouragements from his family. He studied English literature from 2007 to 2011 at Sana'a University.
In the spring of 2011, specifically with the start of the peaceful Yemeni revolution, Murad was one of earliest to join the protestors in their demand of a just, civil state. He used to spend most of his time inside the change square, inspecting the entrants for weapons and joining the peaceful rallies. When the political parties seized control of the course of the revolution, he left the change square disappointed.
The campaigns
Color The Walls of Your Streets
Subay drew his inspiration to launch his first campaign "Color the Walls of Your Street" from the damaged walls of the streets. He went down alone to the streets with his tools on March 15, 2012 to paint contemporary murals on the walls. He then posted a public invitation for people through his Facebook page to join him in painting openly. A week later, many people showed up to paint with him on March 22, 2012. He then invited people every Thursday morning to join him in painting murals openly, and often painted alone in other days.
This campaign lasted for three months of which artists, passers-by, elders, children, men, women and even soldiers painted alongside him in different areas in Sana'a city. The idea of this campaign spread between people and similar campaigns were launched soon after in other cities.
The Walls Remember Their Faces
Soon after finishing his first campaign, Subay launched his second campaign which marked the transition to political art. He called the campaign "The Walls Remember Their Faces" on September 8, 2012 to highlight the forcibly disappearance of political activists and journalists from the late 1960s and until 2011. He used stencil technique to paint the faces of the forcibly disappeared on the walls of the cities and invited their families and people in general to join him.
For seven months, Subay asked people on different media to supplement him with information around the forcibly disappeared. Many families responded to him and provided him with pictures, stories and sometimes belongings of the victims. They also joined in painting their disappeared relatives and friends and they held several protests during the campaign. Some of the consequences of this campaign were the creation of a special committee to investigate the cases of enforced disappearance, the discussion over the elaboration of a transitional justice law and the UN pressure on the Yemeni government to sign a convention against enforced disappearance.
Subay and his friends painted the pictures of 102 forcibly disappeared victims in many areas in the cities Sana'a, Taiz, Alhudayda and Ibb. Many of these murals were defaced by unidentified people; however, this act did not discourage Subay and his friends from making dozens of duplicates across the city.
12 Hours
On July 4, 2013, Subay launched the third campaign "12 Hours" to discuss 12 political and social issues affecting the Yemeni society and led it off with a mural about spread of weapons. Fellow artists started to join him during the second activity of the campaign which was about sectarianism.