In Memory and Honor of Al-Mutanabbi Street
Laura Blacklow, USA
| In Memory and Honor
of Al-Mutanabbi Street; Laura Blacklow,
Cambridge, USA, 2012 My book, In Memory and Honor of Al-Mutanabbi Street, has two covers: one for the Western-language audience and another for the Middle Eastern reader. After unfolding the jackets, the viewer sees, on facing pages, a poem I wrote, in English and Arabic calligraphy. My words focus on the seemingly disparate traditions that end up connecting booklovers of my country with those in Iraq. I pay tribute to what was lost in March, 2007, when a car bomb tore apart al-Mutanabbi Street, the ancient place of book sellers. I also honor the spirit of those who have rehabilitated the area and who, to this day, insist on freedom of expression despite harsh new laws and aggressive efforts at limiting the dissemination of written words. Inside pages consist equally of ethereal and defined images, popping up and moving back and forth between two familiar visual forms of representation: silhouettes (of buildings, trees, and figures), and the schema of the Baghdad street map (centering on al-Mutanabbi Street}. To me, it is fitting that the overall form should be a book that gently extends the boundaries of tradition, while simultaneously referencing a whole history of tomes based on the reading - in all its manifestations - of visual and verbal languages. I hope that my efforts will encourage and strengthen the worldwide community of intellectuals and artists who, as Doris Lessing described in The Golden Notebook, push the bolder up the mountain. Edition of 4; 2012; 11 x 7.5 x .5 inches; Van Dyke brown print and cyanotype on rag paper (with pop-ups) foulow@yahoo.com www.lblacklow.com |