Ships of Scraps: Moath’s Model Ships in Islamic Art and Prison Histories

Detained without charge in the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp since 2002, Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi makes works of art while incarcerated that belong to a category of art known as “prison art.” Moath builds model ships out of found materials; the ships he creates and the act of art making itself have been interpreted as resistant acts that challenge the horrors of Guantánamo. This chapter, while recognizing the importance of art as means of contesting the dehumanizing experience of incarceration, extends the interpretation of Moath’s work by situating it with an Islamic visual tradition and a longer history of model ship making that has taken place in prisons around the world over the last few hundred years. A reading that acknowledges these additional lenses demonstrates the importance of Moath’s work as a complex testament of one man’s expression of faith, survival, and creativity.