This spring, Jack Shainman Gallery presents How Iraqi Are You?, an exhibition of large scale linen paintings by Hayv Kahraman. This new series is based aesthetically on medieval Iraqi illuminated manuscripts, notably the Maqamat al Hariri, a canonical 12th century text illustrating the everyday life of Iraqis. Using this format, Kahraman portrays vignettes from her childhood in Baghdad and her emigration as a refugee to Sweden. Her work recreates forgotten history from the perspective of an immigrant, and represents a gathering of fleeting memories that could haunt any exile or foreigner.
The scenes depict women engaging in various social, personal, or recreational activities, such as learning Swedish in a class or recalling rhymes they learned in school. Notable is how Kahraman has rendered all the figures in white, making them indistinguishable from their Swedish counterparts. Without background or specific context, amid a flux of meanings and words, neither here nor there, the figures seem to be completely assimilated into their environment, suggesting the conflicts and tensions experienced as an émigré. It is the careful writing over the canvases that disclose the experiences that Kahraman and her family went through, pointing to a sense of loss and displacement, but also hope and emancipation.
Hayv Kahraman, Naboog (2014)
©Hayv Kahraman. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Hayv Kahraman, Kachakchi (2015)
©Hayv Kahraman. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Hayv Kahraman, Broken Teeth (2014)
©Hayv Kahraman. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Hayv Kahraman, Ummo-doch (2015)
©Hayv Kahraman. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
by Louise Lui
How Iraqi Are You? is on until 4 April 2015, at Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th Street, New York, New York 10011