The Presence and Absence of the Light
I participated in the Artists Book
section of ‘Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here’ Project
with a book called ‘Absence’ and when the call came out for the printmaking
project called ‘Absence and Presence’ I was delighted to have the opportunity
to explore this idea of the destruction
of culture further.
I spoke to an artist friend, Jack Oudyn, with whom
I have collaborated on projects in the past, and who also intensely supports the rights of freedom of
speech and democracy. We felt that if we
collaborated on the print we would be making a statement about support and solidarity
between artists, particularly our fellow artists under threat in Iraq. After much thought and discussions about freedom of speech, around the time of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, France, we started work on the print. Since that time there have also been reports of the destruction and burning of books in Mosul in Iraq.
The print is a combination of two prints, the first
is a linocut of an Islamic screen which has openings to let in the light of the
world, culture and literature, and others that are blocked by an aggressive
arrow pointed shape moving across the screen.
The second digital print of abstract asemic writing
underlies the first print. It also
contains the jumbled letters of the words Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here,
but only fragments of the print are visible through the openings in the screen,
and these letters do not appear in their entirety in the displayed print.
The composite print has a 3D element in that the
openings in part of the screen have shutters (or perhaps book covers) that need
to be opened when the print is on display.
Five of the edition of ten prints of The Presence and Absence of the Light are on their way to the United Kingdom and the United States for inclusion in the 'Absence and Presence' exhibitions held as part of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Project.
