The Art of Resistance: Defending Academic Freedom since 1933 | Page 72

Hanaa Malallah ?Iraqi
False Peace
2013
Signed
Unframed
Oil on canvas
40 x 40 cm
Guide Price £7,000

“

To physically taste war is completely different than to experience it
second-hand. The first lesson taught by physically tasting war is that
ruination is the essence of all being. Death has no meaning and anything
solid can be reduced to nothing in seconds. The learning of this process
of vanishing, this morphing of matter to dust, of something into
nothing, has led me to conclude that ruination, or destruction is hidden
de facto in the phenomenon of figuration. Thus, for the last five years
I have explored the space located between figuration and abstraction,
between existing and vanishing, a concept which for me also holds
deep spiritual meaning.
hanaa malallah

70

Hanaa studied Fine Art in Baghdad, with an
emphasis on graphics and painting. Her thesis
Logic Order in Mesopotamian Drawing gained
her a PhD in the Philosophy of Painting in 2005.
She taught and lectured in a number of faculties
of the University of Fine Arts in Baghdad, before
leaving Iraq in late 2006 to take up an artist
residency at the Institut du Monde Arabe in
Paris. From there, in 2008 she followed the call
of a School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS) Fellowship in London, in part supported
by a CARA Fellowship. She currently holds a
fellowship at the Chelsea College of Art, London.
Her work graces numerous private collections,
art centres and museums, including The Centre
for Modern Art, Baghdad; the Jordan National
Museum, Amman; The British Museum, London;
The Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; and
The Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharja.

”

The Art of Resistance? Defending Academic Freedom

Lot 22