Hanaa Malallah – Remnants at The Cube | The Cube
JANUARY – MARCH 2023
Free to attend, open to all
The Cube | Art House West, Grafton Rd, Croydon CR0 3RP
27th January – 7th March 2023
“My practice addresses the difference between the remains of a Civilization (Ruins) in contrast with the remains that are precipitated by human destruction and armed conflict (Rubble).
My work – including these small objects at The Cube – reflects upon my own experiences in Iraq, I postulate that the region embraces both Ruins and Rubble; Ruins of the remnants of Mesopotamian archaeological sites, that position themselves as a constant ‘Time Travel’, the physical evidence of a society long past, yet still holding deep connections to our present and future. By contrast, Rubble that is the palpable outcome of lethal effects of war, chaos, and human destruction, indicating a loss of culture and identity.
These small objects of mine, will suggest, I am concerned with tackling the possibilities for addressing ruins and rubble as a new aesthetic which attends to this history (the latent power of ruins, القوة الكامنة للخرائب) in the present, as that which might provide the foundations for a new relation between past and present.”
– Hanaa Malallah
About the artist
Hanaa Malallah (1958-) is an artist, researcher and educator based in London. Born in Iraq, she studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, and later earned an MA and PhD from the University of Baghdad. In her graduate work, she developed a semiotic approach to art, receiving a doctorate in 2005 for a thesis that uses forms of logic elaborated by modern philosophy to examine the art of ancient Mesopotamia. Malallah left Iraq at the end of 2006 for an artist residency at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris; that was followed by fellowships at the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Chelsea College of Art in London. Before leaving Iraq, she taught at the Institute of Fine Arts and the University of Baghdad; in recent years she has taught at the Royal University for Women in Bahrain.
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