self-portrait 2013
Hanaa Malallah is an Iraqi artist, whose works are strongly associated with the wars and conflicts in her country, In this lecture, she introduced a series of wall projects and photography, from the visual quality, it is very obvious that the technical aspects of her practice include the burning, distressing and obliterating of material: she has termed this Ruins Technique. Clearly, this technique owes its existence to the lethal face of war. although she said that she did not mean to produce the idea of war, but still there are various senses of violence and unease coming from the object materials to our perception.
In her use of burned fabric and multi-material installation that includes elements from the real war-zone places, as well as many photographs showing destroyed buildings and overwhelming scenes of ruining left by the war, I was reminiscent of that just years ago, I had been interested in the situation and condition of the middle-east, and also moved by the severely suffering life of local people and underprivileged humanity over there. so certain of my previous works attempted to draw people's attention to those who are in a serious position using dark and dull color and sentimental gesture or catastrophic narrative.
but different from me, Hanaa has had a life in that real spot, and with the experience of reality, her art-work can create a more vivid sense of something like death or loss. however, in terms of evoking emotion and bringing about collective empathy.
Abstract, Figurative 2011 Many layers of burned canvas and strings on canvas 200 x 450 cm