Title: Woman in the Mountain — Femme dans la Montagne

Artist: Ali Arkady

Year: 2026

Location / Context: Mount Sinjar, Iraq (2014 Siege of Sinjar & Anti-ISIS Campaign)

Exhibition History: Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University – Cairo, Egypt (2026)

Medium: Direct photographic transfer on fractured millimeter-thin lithographic limestone fragment, set flush into precision-carved archival cardboard plaque

Dimensions: 8 x 8 x 0.5 cm (3.15 x 3.15 x 0.20 in)

Weight: 40 g

Edition: Unique piece (1/1)

Price: €2,000

About the Artwork:

"Woman in the Mountain" is a singular miniature relief sculpture created in 2026, encapsulating an iconic chapter of modern Middle Eastern documentary history. The piece is derived from an original wartime photograph captured by Ali Arkady in 2014 on Mount Sinjar, Iraq, documenting the harrowing operations to break the genocidal siege imposed by ISIS on the Yazidi people. The focal subject is Zînan, an intrepid Kurdish female unit commander who led critical combat maneuvers on the mountain.

The technical execution bridges tactile mineralogy and photographic permanence: the image is transferred directly onto a fragile, millimeter-thin fractured shard of authentic lithographic limestone. The artist meticulously carved the center of an 8 x 8 cm archival cardboard plaque to embed the stone flush with the surface, uniting the raw broken mineral with a refined geometric plane. Functioning as an intimate historical reliquary, this unique object immortalizes female courage, military sacrifice, and sacred resistance within the enduring materiality of stone.