Art and Life Today in Bahgdad by female Iraqi artist Hana' Malallah February 1, 2006

Hana? Malallah, the only female artist participating in the ?Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art? exhibition at Carleton College will give two presentations at the College next week. She will speak on ?Art from the Ashes? on Tuesday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in Boliou Hall, Room 104, and will lead an informal discussion on ?Art and Life in Baghdad Today,? on Wednesday, Feb. 1 at 4:30 p.m. in Gould Library Athenaeum. The events are free and open to the public.

Malallah was born in Theeqar, Iraq and is head of the graphic arts department at the Fine Arts Institute and a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, Iraq. She has had numerous one-person exhibitions at venues in Baghdad and has been part of group exhibitions in Tunis, Amman, Paris and London. Malallah?s works are in the collections of the Jordanian National Museum in Amman and the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad.

Malallah?s three diaries featured in the ?Dafatir? exhibition evoke both the passage of space and time. With ?pages? perforated like sieves, the books suggest that time is collapsing into a chaotic jumble, that the situations of one day are leaking into those of the days on either side and that there is no real sequence but, instead, entropy.

Malallah is visiting Carleton in lieu of fellow Iraqi artist Mohammed al-Shammarey, who is unable to travel. Malallah will be on campus from Jan. 31 through Feb. 2. She will then travel to Minneapolis, where the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts will host her in a presentation on Saturday evening, Feb. 4. The Minnesota Center for Books Arts will host a portion of ?Dafatir? from Feb. 17 through Mar. 11.

Dafatir, which translates as ?notebook? in Arabic, features books as art and demonstrates how artists transform the book into sculptural and poetic objects referencing everything from modern poetry to current events. The work of the 17 Iraqi artists displayed are drawn from the collection of London-based Iraqi artist Dia al-Azzawi.

The ?Dafatir? exhibition was organized by the University of North Texas Art Gallery, Denton, Texas and supported by the Texas Commission on the Arts. The exhibition continues at Carleton through Feb. 12. The Carleton College Art Gallery is located near First and Winona Streets in the lower level of the Music and Drama Center. It is open daily at noon and closes at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 10 p.m. Thursday-Friday, and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Art Gallery has limited disability accessibility. For more information, call the Art Gallery at (507) 646-4342 or visit http://www.carleton.edu/campus/gallery/