The Hellhounds of Genocide
In Ridikkuluz’s paintings, the irascible dog emerges as a symbol for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
The Hellhounds of Genocide paints a harrowing portrait of Israeli military atrocities against Palestinians, as depicted by artist Ridikkuluz. The exhibition opens with a striking visual of George W. Bush portrayed as a Sunday painter, with a menacing shoe lodged in his mouth. This alludes to the infamous incident where Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi hurled his shoes at the then-U.S. president during a 2008 press conference in Baghdad.
The result is a painting titled “Ya Kalb (tribute to Al-Zaidi)” (2026), in which a white poodle with glowing blue eyes is possessed by a demonic presence. This eerie symbolism foreshadows the dangers that lie ahead.
Throughout the show, Ridikkuluz presents Israeli soldiers as vicious dogs, perpetrating brutal acts upon Palestinians and other Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) individuals. The Israeli military's use of dogs for attacks on Palestinians has escalated dramatically in recent times, drawing global condemnation. In prisons controlled by Israeli soldiers, dogs are used to sodomize, maul, and humiliate Palestinian men.
In this context, the exhibition's title, Klab (كِلَاب), takes on a new meaning as an insult, but also embodies the ongoing genocide and its unrestrained perpetrators.
Ridikkuluz transforms Francisco de Goya's 1814 painting, "The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid," which depicts a Spanish man resisting Napoleon's soldiers. The artist's adaptation, titled "You're Next - the Fifteenth of May" (2026), commemorates May 15, 1948, the start of the Nakba (النَّكْبَة), or catastrophe, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were displaced, dispossessed, or killed during Israel's formation between 1947 and 1949.
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