By David Vowell
On Aug. 6, 1990, an American businessman walked out of Evin Prison in Iran after being held for over 10 years under the suspicion that he was a spy. In each hand he carried a canvas suit bag, and in them was the secret of his ability to endure a decade of harsh treatment, including solitary confinement and both mental and physical torture.
The bags contained more than 200 drawings and a few paper mache boxes. In one of the boxes was a fragile sculpture of the head of a fellow prisoner. Just 3 inches tall, it was made entirely of reconstituted breadcrumbs. These are examples of the creative undertakings that sustained David Rabhan through years of captivity and abuse.
Born in 1926 in Savannah, Ga., Rabhan was a U.S. Army pilot, a veteran of three wars, an entrepreneur, an artist and author. He and his wife, Mandy, have lived in Cherokee County for eight years.
When I first met him in fall 2017, he had stopped in my office door to inquire about exhibiting his artwork in the Cherokee County Art Council’s gallery. I was busy and not particularly encouraging.
Two months passed, and he appeared at my door again, this time saying, “You need to come to my house and see my paintings.” Two weeks later, in his living room atop a mountain 3 miles from Tennessee, the array of bold artworks rendered me speechless.
That day we put March 2018 on the calendar and started plans to share his creations with local citizens. Included in that exhibit were 13 oil paintings, two large wood sculptures, 25 drawings of fellow prisoners and that incredible bread sculpture.
Rabhan was in Iran prior to his captivity, overseeing the operation of his two factories that produced dietary protein for Iranians. His bachelor of science degree in agriculture from the University of Georgia provided the know-how for such enterprises, but his college years also included art.
While at UGA, he was invited to attend a class filled with fine art majors, and his paintings soon garnered high regard from the professor. Art had been a part of his life, though, even before the first grade when his mother enrolled him in art classes. One of his childhood instructors was Lamar Dodd, the professor whose class Rabhan would one day audit, and the same educator for whom the University of Georgia’s School of Art was eventually named.
Regular practice honed Rabhan’s skills, leading to artworks beyond painting – items in wood or metal, for instance, and years later in a foreign prison, discarded tin cans, newspapers or chunks of bread.
After his return to the United States, friends and family urged David to write the story of his time in prison. He did, and the result is a fascinating book, Conscious Coma: My Ten Years in an Iranian Prison.
The first thing you notice when you pick up a copy is that the forward is written by former President Jimmy Carter. Rabhan and Carter have been friends since 1970, when Carter was running for governor of Georgia, and Rabhan flew the famous peanut farmer around the state to meet various community leaders.
Conscious Coma is a story of endurance, but also a tale of art making, using scrounged or stolen supplies – paper and pencil, paints, maybe a brush. A portrait of a jailer’s son could lead to favors. Some artworks were made purposely to gain such help, others as distraction from the realities of prison treatment.
The portraits of fellow prisoners created bonds between Rabhan and the mostly Iranian inmates. They were there for being on the wrong side of politics. Rabhan’s portraits serve as simple memorials, for all those men were executed.
David Vowell is director of visual and literary arts with the Cherokee County Arts Council. Email him at david4thearts@gmail.com.