Coffee at Shabandar Café

Description:	linocut and screenprint. Edition of 10. When a colleague asked me to submit a piece of work for this collaboration my first reaction was that my art is not political but merely representational. However this project has opened my eyes and although the subject matter is distressing, the process of putting this print together has been rewarding and I hope that my print will in turn provide a departure point for discourse.My print is meant to be a simple but telling reflection on an everyday past-time; drinking coffee with friends. We all arrange to meet our friends once in a while in a café and many of us never think twice that there may be a consequence to that meeting. But on March 5th 2007 in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded on Al Mutanabbi street outside the historic Shabandar café. This café, situated in the heart of the literary and cultural centre of Baghdad had been open since 1917 and was an epicenter for literary discourse and a place for ideas to be freely exchanged.In my print the faded pattern of the wallpaper is screenprinted and sets the interior of the café. Blood runs from the spout of the coffee pot made from a lino block and illustrates the spilled blood of all those who died due to the bombing. Black ink also flows from the spout representing the loss of literary ideas and thoughts in all the books that burned on that day and pools over the anthology of poems ‘Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here’. The presence of the anthology is reflective of the grief and despair written within its pages and yet it also marks a sense of hope that these losses will not be forgotten, but will continue to be written about. The importance of the written word is therefore embedded within the imagery of this print which ties together the cultural aspect of drinking coffee with friends within a rich and cultural environment.
Created By:	King, Cathy
Contributor(s):	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Publisher:	(United Kingdom)
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/1201
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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