Thinking through the humanitarian crisis that unfolded in the wake of the Syrian Civil War and the resulting migration, the artist contemplates the blind optimism that liberalism offers in his 2017 series ‘Belief: The Promise of Absence.’ The stormy weather and the boats braving the rough waters in ‘Ruthless Waves’ become a metaphor for an inherently contradictory system that fails to offer meaningful solutions in times of global upheaval. By contemplating the lofty promises of liberalism versus the stark realities revealed in the wake of the crisis, the work aims to instigate a debate on the disparities between rhetoric and action.