Creativity vs Destruction is an exhibition that explores the experiences of five internationally respected Iraqi artists from the 1970s up to the present day.  The focal point of the exhibition will be work from Rashad Selim, Waafa Bilal, Sama Alshaibi, Maysaloun Faraj and Henaa Mal-Allah.  On the opening night the Kurdish-Iraqi artist Adalet Garmiany will be present to enact the specially commissioned performance ‘Placeless’, which explores the experience of exile and occupation of homeland.

The work exhibited will illustrate what is happening to Iraqi culture as a whole and will also show the artists’ individual reactions to their experience as Iraqis. The exhibition will consist in the main part of video and interactive multi media pieces.  Also on show will be photography, sculpture and painting.  Wall texts will explain the artists’ relationships with Iraq (most are refugees or émigrés now living in Europe and America).

On July the 3rd at 11:00 Adalet Garmiany will present a lecture on ArtRole an organization which he founded and which establishes links between the UK and the Middle East through art and art education.

On July the 3rd at 12:30 Henna Mal-Allah will talk about Ruins Technique: the method by which she constructs her remarkable canvases. Henna is Iraq’s foremost female painter and left Iraq only recently under the Scholars at Risk scheme, she currently holds a fellowship at SOAS.

On July the 12^th at 6:00 Rashad Selim noted Iraqi artist and activist will close the exhibition with a lecture entitled Creativity vs Destruction: Stories of Iraqi Art.

Artist Profiles

Waafa Bilal

Waafa Bilal

The first part of Waafa’s life was spent in Iraq where he suffered torture under Sadam’s regime. Later he nearly met the same fate as a refugee in Kuwait. In 1992 Waafa emigrated to the US where he studied art.

Over the past decade Waafa has built up an international reputation with several high profile solo exhibitions to his name.

He currently teaches at the Chicago Institute of Art.

Website: www.crudeoils.us/wafaa

Adalet Garmiany

Adalet Garmainy

An Iraqi Kurd who, under pressure emigrated to the UK in 2000.

Adalet’s work explores his identity as an Iraqi Kurd through most media.

For ‘Creativity VS Destruction’ he will be performing a piece which reflects on the concept of an exhibition of Iraqi exiles work in Edinburgh (the capital of an occupying nation).

Website: www.adaletg.net

Sama Alshaibi

A Palestinian- Iraqi who has become a naturalized American citizen and whom is currently Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Arizona. Sama’s photographs and films are represented in many major collections world wide.

Of her own work Sama says, “I articulate the façade of security measures in a hyper-fearful post 9/11 world, and then demonstrate the exploitation perpetrated by those who seek to gain in the name of “security.” My work examines the sprawl and spectacle of the military machine while presenting the human counter-point to such national endeavors.”

Website: www.samaalshaibi.com

Maysaloun Faraj

Maysaloun Faraj

Of Iraqi parentage Maysaloun was born in the USA, but went on to study in Iraq. She has lived in the UK for 26 years.

Since 1984 Maysaloun has contributed to noteworthy group exhibitions at local and international level, won numerous awards and held fifteen one-woman shows to date.  Her artwork is in private collections world wide as well as important public collections.

In 1995 Maysaloun founded Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art; a groundbreaking three-part project encompassing a travelling exhibition, accompanying publication and website (www.incia.co.uk). Following on from the success of Strokes of Genius Maysaloun co-founded Ayagallery in London with her husband the architect Ali Mousawi where she continues to curate and host noteworthy exhibitions making it London’s premier venue dedicated to promoting quality art predominantly from Iraq but also from the Arab and Islamic world at large.

Of her own work Maysaloun says: Having left Iraq in 1982, a land in which I am deeply rooted and a people whom I dearly love, it was humanity and the human condition that interested and concerned me most.  As an Iraqi, an Arab and a Moslem woman with an East/West upbringing, it is conflict, war, injustice, human rights, human wrongs and beauty lost that informs much of my work today.

Website: www.ayagallery.co.uk and www.kitesanddreams.com

Hanaa Mal-Allah

Hanaa Mal-Allah

Hanaa studied at the Institute of Fine arts in Baghdad and much later taught at the same. Hanaa exhibited in many high profile exhibitions including with the Baghdad-based Iraqi Phoenix group, which was set up in 2003 to prove the resilience of creativity during war time. In 2006 Hanaa left Iraq on a tourist visa, first to Paris and then to the UK, she was later protected under the Scholars at Risk scheme and awarded a fellowship at SOAS.

Hanaa is widely regarded as the foremost Iraqi woman painter alive. Her recent work is increasingly concerned with the loss of Iraqi’s heritage through the destruction of its libraries and the looting of National Museum following the 2003 invasion. As well as exploring the recent destruction of Iraqi heritage Hanaa’s work also investigates the recurrent cycle whereby, throughout the ages, the Mesopotamian landscape has been set on fire; many of her pieces are burned and cut as well as being painted. Hanaa’s work expresses the remarkable way in which such destruction can inspire and activate artistic creation.

Rashad Selim

Rashad Selim

A well known Iraqi Artist, intellectual and activist. Rashad left Iraq shortly after the ascendancy of the Ba’ath party.

Rashad’s work and his lectures both focus on Iraq’s cultural heritage.

Biography

Andrea Bruce

Andrea Bruce is an Indiana native and an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After shooting as a staff photographer for The Concord Monitor and The St. Petersburg Times, she joined the staff of The Washington Post where she began to chronicle the world’s most troubled areas.

She has won many awards for her work, including top honors from the National Pictures of the Year competition, the White House News Photographers Association (where she has been named Photographer of the Year three times), and the prestigious John Faber award from the Overseas Press Club in New York.

Andrea is currently based in Baghdad where she writes the weekly column “Unseen Iraq” for The Washington Post.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/unseen-iraq/

Two Girls Playing

Jamal Penjweny is a Kurdish photographer, born in 1981 in Iraqi Kurdistan. His photographs are intimate and at the same time striking. Penjweny’s compositions add intrigue to his powerful subject matter by creating immediate visual interest combined with layered narrative.

An exhibition of Jamal Penjweny’s photographs will be in the Bongo Club for 4 weeks from May 13th to June 10th.

Biography

Jamal Penjweny

Jamal was born in 1981 in Iraqi Kurdistan. and is a graduate of The Photography Institute in Australia.

Major news agencies and publishing companies have published his work including: Al-Sharql Awsat, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), New York Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, Yahoo News, Polaris Images, Zuma press, The Guardian Newspaper, Human Rights Watch, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, Sipa Press, Jeune Afrique Magazine, Driknews Agency and World News Network.

Description of Jamal’s Work

Although I want no part of war, war leaves its mark on me and I have come to consider both what is happy and sad in our lives by its measure. Thus, in my mother’s mind, I was born ‘when the Iran-Iraq war started’, and my grandfather would recall he got engaged ‘during World War I ‘. It seems that war has become part of our lives. Our children do not know of peace and as a result grow up playing war. In Slemani, a child made a picture of a passenger plane which had bombs falling from it. Above the picture he had written ‘I can travel’. It made me wonder. I asked him, “why is your passenger plane dropping bombs?” His answer was, “Why? Is there a plane which does not throw bombs?!”. Through my photos I try to erase the idea of war.

Those Iraqis who fed their homes into neighbouring countries have found themselves in an increasingly fragile position. Many of these refugees have suffered great trauma at home and struggle to cope in a foreign country. Formal employment is not permitted, their savings are rapidly depleting and many refugees depend on UNHCR for vital assistance, healthcare and schooling. Voluntary repatriation to Iraq is the only practical solution for most Iraqis but is dependent on stability and rule of law in Iraq. UNHCR is working to resettle the most traumatised and vulnerable refugees to third countries like the UK, but the need is much greater than the number of available resettlement places. Until a solution can be found, Syria’s Iraqi exiles must continue to survive on what little of their resources remain.

In the summer of 2008 New Exposure, with the support of the UNHCR, worked with a group of young Iraqis who sought refuge in Damascus. British photographers spent one month teaching them the basics of photography and talking about their lives as refugees. The work they produced provides an original and highly personal glimpse into the hopes and fears of ordinary Iraqi people in the wake of the violence which has torn their country apart.

This exhibition is in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).