Friday, April 20, 2012

Shoes Hurled at Dubya Inspires Iraqi Woman's "Art"

There's often a fine line between art and agit-prop, and this chick has crossed it, well, artfully:
London (CNN) -- To Iraqi artist Hanaa' Malallah her shoes are weapons of mass destruction that appear in many of her works.

Her inspiration is an incident in 2008, when Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at former president George W. Bush, five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The invasion was aimed at rooting out Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, but U.S. inspectors eventually conceded that he did not have any.

Malallah's exhibition, "Iraq -- How, Where, For Whom?" held jointly with the British duo kennardphillipps, opens in London on Friday April 20.

Her shoes appear in a photograph labeled I.W.M.D (Iraq's Weapon's of Mass Destruction). They are also embroidered on an American flag, on an Iraqi flag, and the originals are in a glass display case.

"They are my shoes," said Malallah. "I bought them after I arrived in Britain and I used them for three years."

She added: "Shoes are our way of resistance. It's all we have. My resistance is through art."...
Surely not. Surely you also have, say, scrunchies.

Scrunchies of mass resistance: I like it!

A preview of coming attractions?

No comments: