Sophisticated Ways: Destruction of an Ancient City
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The latest exhibition at London’s Aya Gallery: Sophisticated Ways: Destruction of an Ancient City documents the destruction of Baghdad. It features the work of two artists Hana Mal Allah and Rashad Selim. Mal Allah perspective is that of an artist resident in Baghdad while Selim is an artist in exile.Using different art practices, both artists engage with the destruction of their city Baghdad and the devastation of their homeland. “In this exhibition, the focus of my work is based on a recurring problematic visual; an image of Baghdad as a city founded on an accumulation of artifacts that bear witness to a rich cultural and historical heritage”, Mal Allah said. “Yet on the other hand, a city bearing witness to systematic destruction (repeatedly vandalized and burnt throughout history). The existence of the Baghdad Museum of Archeology denotes that Mesopotamia; the land between the two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates) is the cradle of civilization. Given this, I question whether it is possible that the cultural face of Baghdad is intrinsic in its points of destruction. For this specific reason, my artwork is based on geometry and meticulous order, which once completed, is deliberately shattered, in an expression of chaos on order and perhaps the contrary."Rashad Selim proposes a Memorial to the War on Iraq 'To do Justice to the devastation of the ongoing war on Iraq I suggest that every concrete slab, sand bag and barbed wire etc used to segregate, imprison, create blast walls and wreak havoc on civil society be gathered towards constructing a ziggurat, this, using the heavy military equipment that supported the destruction. A Hanging Garden should then be created by the five million orphans of Iraq (UNICEF statistic), all of which be paid for by the coalition of the willing. As Iraqi soil is contaminated, earth and compost for the garden should be brought from around the world again by orphans who as ambassadors should take this task in part as a holiday in the country of the soils origin. It goes without saying that the irrigation and lighting of this Hanging Garden Monument should come about in celebration of the return of water, electricity and waste management to Iraq. My art is dedicated towards envisioning such scenarios and its realisation. It together and joins in a multitude of ways debris and the discarded”, Selim explained. “The process is important, it inspires me to find beauty in the terror of loss and to imagine”.
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