Gaby el Ashkar and the link between corruption and creativity

For as long as Gaby el Ashkar has known corruption, he has known creativity.

Gaby grew up in Beirut, Lebanon in the throes of a civil war. While some see creativity as a calling, Gaby turned to it first as a coping mechanism. Art became a way for him to make sense of the world. Today, he is a multidisciplinary visual artist, interior architect, and award-winning designer.

Over the years, Gaby observed how the corruption in Lebanon was made possible by a devious creativity. Corrupt individuals relied on design principles such as scale, manipulation, placement of images, and repetition to distract and deceive. And it was working—like an inkblot creeping across the page, the tendrils of corruption extended from individuals to compromise society and systems. 

As Gaby shared during his talk, this system-level corruption culminated in two significant events: a financial heist in which Lebanese citizens found their funds diverted and squandered by a state bank scheme. Overnight, people lost almost their entire life savings and were denied the ability to withdraw what was left. The second event was the deadly explosion at the Beirut port in 2020, the result of ammonium nitrate stored in a residential neighbourhood.

Gaby had experienced enough. Convinced that feeling exiled at home is worse than an exile that takes one away, he made the decision to move to Canada.

Through his art and his words, Gaby continues to speak out against corruption. From the stage at Bayview Yards, he implored us to use our creative outlets to shed light on the darkness of corruption. To counter indifference and unaccountability in pixels and clay, through lyrics and brushstrokes. 

We’ll leave the last words with Gaby: “Don’t look the other way. Be the just creativity that counters the devious one in order to preserve the colours of the things you find beautiful and worth fighting for.”

Our deepest gratitude to Gaby for sharing his powerful, poignant story. To see Gaby’s multidisciplinary work, visit his website or follow him on Instagram, @gabyelashkar.