Up in Smoke

Description: handprint relief. Edition of 5.
The bombing of Al-Mutanabbi Street left an impression on me because it was an attack on such a culturally significant place. This was and continues to be the historic booksellers district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Not only did this attack take the lives of numerous civilians, but it destroyed a public space meant for literature and expression of thought - their culture. Witness accounts of the Al-Mutanabbi Street bombing describe it as filled with smoke, but the comment that I was really struck by was made by a civil servant: Papers from the book market were floating through the air like leaflets dropped from a plane. I chose to depict this because it is such a dramatic image. I would go as far as describing it as poetic. My print, Up in smoke, embodies the moment of the car bombing - billowing smoke, distorted metal and debris - as well as the moment right after, when the people came back, despite all of this destruction. A lament for the loss of culture is combined with th
Origin: 2015
Created By: Iancu, Raluca
Contributor(s): Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Publisher: (Ruston, LA)
Source: http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/1048
Collection: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition Collection
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright: In Copyright
Subjects: artists book
art
bookworks

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