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Study on the theme of the hanging odes: Al-Mu'allaqat, acrylic on canvas, 140x118cm, 1980
Profile: Azzawi, Blessed Tigris, fibre-glass sculpture, at the British Museum
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/on_loan_from/d/dia_al-azzawi,_blessed_tigris,.aspx
Dia talks about why it is important to mount the exhibition of Iraqi artists at The Station Museum of Contemporary Art in the fall of 2008. Documentary in progress supported by Artists Rescue Mission and The Station Museum.
Reel Festivals aims to show a different side of areas in conflict, “beyond the headlines”, and encourage engagement between the arts and international issues. Based in Scotland, previous festivals have focused on Iraq and Afghanistan.
The first Iraqi woman artist to have a solo exhibit in Baghdad, al-Attar has exhibited throughout Europe and the US, as well as in Iraq. She was born in Baghdad, studied at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and at the University of Baghdad. She left Baghdad and settled in the UK in the 1970s. There, she received a graduate degree in printmaking from Wimbledon School of Art in London and another degree in printmaking from the Central School of Art and Design in London.
Links:
http://www.gagallery.com/Artists_map.html&cur=1&artid=20
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/wordintoart/word-into-art/artists/attar.html
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/arabic/Iraqi-Artists.html
My Home Land invites seven Iraqi artists in the Diaspora to explore their feeling towards the catastrophic events, which occur daily in different Iraqis cities.
We, who left our homeland each carrying his reasons and dreams, were also tormented by the illusion of return. A year and it will pass? But the years passed and we have become comfotrable with our new lives. The days were repeating often… Wars came and the graves and prisons expanded all over the homeland that we started searching for excuses to ward off the delusion of return… Forgetting was our solace, be it the homeland we left behind or the new place we now call home. And because we are foreigners, we forgive ourselves the confusion of places. When friends who have visited the homeland inform us that she is not what is in our dreams, we pretend not to listen to what they say.
We are painting her from our place of exile as if we live there. It is the return without reproach. – D. Azzawi, London, 2nd Feb. 2010.
From the catalogue for MY HOMELAND, Artsawa Gallery, Dubai
United Arab Emirates 3/17/10-4/17/10, available at scribd.com, http://www.scribd.com/doc/36787556/My-Homeland-Curated-by-Dia-Azzawi
Review in Eye of Dubai, http://www.eyeofdubai.com/v1/news/newsdetail-41344.htm
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/unveiled/
Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea UK
Jan 30th – May 9th 2009
Kader Attia, Ghost, 2007, Aluminium foil Dimensions variable
“Charles Saatchi … has put together an exhibition of contemporary art from the Middle East which contains elements that could provoke dramatically hostile reactions from Muslim fundamentalist quarters. In our hypersensitive times, after the fatwa condemning Salman Rushdie and the violent reaction to the Danish cartoons of the Prophet, Saatchi might be testing his luck in celebrating homosexual images of cavorting naked Muslim men, and cartoonish sculptures of Tehran prostitutes and transsexuals.
Yet however combustible it may turn out to be, Saatchi has good reason to put on this top-notch survey of Middle Eastern contemporary art. News of the Middle East today is dominated by images and reports of death and destruction, of terrorists and refugees, and the human misery caused by long-held political and religious antagonism. This widespread conflict overshadowing the region has tended to obscure the remarkably vibrant contemporary art scene that is alive and well in the countries of the Middle East and its diaspora.”
- Joanna Pitman , Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East at Saatchi Gallery
Unveiled, the new Saatchi Gallery’s second show lays bare the Middle East in all its raw and quirky glory, The Times, 1/27/09, retreived 1/19/11, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5592197.ece
from Jon Turner:
A CALL TO POETS FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY POETS BRIGADE VERMONT CHAPTER
AT THE GREEN DOOR STUDIOS FOR FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK ON FEBRUARY 4 2011 AT 7 PM 18 HOWARD STREET IN BURLINGTON BEHIND SPEEDER AND EARLS OFF PINE STREET
THE REVOLUTIONARY POETS BRIGADE WAS FOUNDED BY 4 ACTIVIST POETS IN SAN FRANCISCO IN 2009 SINCE THEN IT HAS GROWN TO 76 POETS OUT OF 25 COUNTRIES INCLUDING ALL POETS LAUREATE OF SAN FRANCISCO, MARK LIPMAN, AGNETA FALK SARA MENEFEE, ANTONIETA VILLAMEL, MICHAEL WARR, BOADIBA, MAKETA SMITH- GROVES, IGOR COSTANZO, MATT SEDILLO, AND VERMONT POET JON TURNER
THE PURPOSE OF THE BRIGADE IS TO RAISE AWARENESS TO SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SPIRITUAL INJUSTICES BY VOCALIZING, THROUGH PERFORMANCE AND POETRY, TO THE PUBLIC WITH HOPES THAT THE COMMON SOUL WILL THINK ABOUT WHAT IS BEING ADDRESSED AND WILL THEREFORE GRAB ONTO THE REINS AND STRIVE FOR INNER AND OUTER PEACE.
THE MISSION STATEMENT FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY POETS BRIGADE IS:
NOW
AS POETS WE ARE UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO SEIZE THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE TIME, BRINGING LANGUAGE TO LIFE AND PARTICIPATING IN THE MOVEMENT THAT IS GATHERING AS WE SPEAK
IT’S TIME
POETRY HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND CONTINUES TO BE, NOT ONLY THE WAY THE POET LISTENS TO HIS OR HER INNERMOST BEING, BUT A WAY THE SPIRIT OF THE TIME, IN ITS MOST FORWARD-LOOKING INCARNATION, IS EXPRESSED AND HEARD. THE TIMES WE’RE IN, OF CRISIS AND THE CRY FOR TRANSFORMATION, PARTICULARLY NEEDS THE NEWS, AS POET W.C. WILLIAMS SAID, ” WITHOUT WHICH WE DIE.”
WE SAY WHAT WE SEE: THAT IS THE SYSTEM WHICH CANNOT REST UNTIL IT EXTRACTS EVERY DROP FROM A DESPERATE EARTH: CAPITALISM. WE SAY WHAT WE SEE: THAT IT IS THE OPPRESSION OF OUR CLASS, DRIVEN TO THE STREETS AND ALLEYS OF OUR CITIES, DRIVEN TO THE MUDDY FIELDS, ALL BECAUSE THERE IS NO PROFIT IN MAINTAINING LIFE AND HEALTH. WE ARE THE HARBINGERS OF REVOLUTION AND THE AWARENESS THAT UNDERLIES AND DRIVES IT.
FOR THE REVOLUTIONARY POETS
IN OUR COMMON STRUGGLE TOWARD FREEDOM, EACH INDIVIDUAL INSTINCTIVELY REACHES FOR THE BEST TOOL AT HAND. AS ARTISTS, WE HAVE THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL OF ALL, THE ABILITY TO INSPIRE, TRANSFORM AND LIBERATE, JUST IN THE NICH OF TIME AS IT HAPPENS, AS THE SICK OLD WAYS RUST, CHOKE SPUTTER AND FADE. POETS, THOSE AT THE COMPRESSED RAZOR-SHARP EDGE OF SOCIAL THOUGHT, AND ALL FELLOW ARTISTS OF VISIONARY COURAGE, STAY MINDFUL OF THIS HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY, LEAD WITH STRONG REVOLUTIONARY VOICE FOR ALL HUMAN KIND TO GENUINELY LIVE AND THRIVE IN COMMON SPIRIT!
BRIGADE
THEREFORE, WE WANT TO CREAT A REVOLUTIONARY POETS BRIGADE, TO RESPOND TO THE DEMANDS OF THE MOMENT- PROVOKING THE FUTURE OUT OF THE CONFUSED MINDS OF TODAY, INSPIRING WITH THE PASSION OF THE LIVING WORD, IN PREPERATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT ON A WIDER AND LARGER SCALE OF THE UPRISING, THE ACTION THAT WILL OVERTHROW THIS SYSTEM OF GREED AND EXPLOITATION.
AS A NETWORK, WE CAN BE PRESENT AND PARTICIPATE IN THE POPULAR RESISTANCE THAT IS GOING ON AROUND US BY HOLDING POETRY EVENTS, BY READING AND SPEAKING AT DEMONSTRATIONS, AND BY PUBLISHING BROADSIDES, PAMPHLETS AND BOOKS. JOIN US!
“COMERADOS…WILL YOU COME TRAVEL WITH US?
SHALL WE STICK BY EACH OTHER AS LONG AS WE LIVE?”
– WALT WHITMAN
(ORIGINALLY DRAFTED BY BOBBY COLEMAN, JACK HIRSCHMAN, SARAH MENEFEE AND CATHLEEN WILLIAMS)
PLEASE JOIN US AT THE GREEN DOOR STUDIO ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 4, 2011 AT 7 PM FOR THIS CALL TO POETS, PLEASE BRING YOUR WORDS AND PEACEFUL SOULS
MUCH PEACE
JON MICHAEL TURNER
