Journalists look at an exhibit by Iraqi-Canadian artist Mahmoud Obaidi at Katara yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin/ The Peninsula
DOHA: Contemporary Iraqi-Canadian artist Mahmoud Obaidi recreates remnants of war-torn Iraq following the invasion of 2003 in his most striking and thought-provoking exhibition yet which opened yesterday at QM Gallery in Katara.
“Fragments, an exhibition by Mahmoud Obaidi” is a major exhibition in response to the destruction of Iraq in which the artist reconstructs all that has been stolen or destroyed in the country as he grapples with the loss of 7,000 years of history in a fraction of time.
It features a series of installations, each connected by a rope representing the ‘organised chaos’ let loose upon Iraq starting with his version of the fallen statue of Saddam Hussein said to have marked the symbolic conclusion of the Battle of Baghdad which saw the prelude to a surge in looting and violence that would later engulf the city.
Obaidi vividly renders dozens of artefacts stolen from museums and placed them on a wall as a reminder of the magnitude of pillage committed during that period.
A highlight of the exhibition is a sculpture of a handicapped Iraqi family titled “Operation Freedom Iraq” which took the artist many months to complete.
“As a result of the operation, there had been millions of fatalities, widowed women, orphaned and deformed children. I thought I should use their weapon in making this piece, so this is made of American weapons and Humvee vehicles left in Iraq we gathered, melted and mixed with bronze,” Obaidi explained at a media preview yesterday.
Another striking piece is called “Ford 71” The work, which depicts a Ford pickup truck, piled high with relics from the ancient Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian cultures.
“Ford is a prominent American vehicle company and this represents the vehicle for the devastation of a 7,000 year civilisation. Loaded in this vehicle are six pillars representing the key pillars of Iraqi civilisation. It also contains the head of the Winged Bull once believed to protect the ancient city of Nineveh from invasion, one of the last pieces destroyed by the occupation.”
Another major installation is the “Mosquito Effect” which is a bundle of objects including a fallen jet, a broken Assyrian statue and an electricity pole, reflecting the loss at all levels.
“The exhibition is about memory and forgetting, about exile and grief, about themeaning of home and, finally, of the possibility of endurance, said Khalid Yousef Al Ibrahim, Chief Strategic Planning Officer at Qatar Museums.
“Mahmoud Obaidi is a longstanding friend of Qatar Museums. He has made a significant impact to the development of arts and culture in Qatar, through both his great work at the Fire Station Artist in Residence initiative and now through his solo exhibition,” said Al Ibrahim.
Presented by Qatar Museums, the exhibition runs until January 30 at QM Gallery in Katara Building 10.
Mahmoud Obaidi was born in 1966 in Iraq. His artistic career has been marked by transition, conflict, fragmentation and exile, and his work encompasses sculpture, conceptual objects, film and painting, forming a series of politically-charged fragments which are brought together within this exhibition.
In addition to the exhibition, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art has dedicated part of the museum to a new display of work by Obaidi called Fair Skies, which is on show until January 8. It is inspired by the artist’s own experience with airport security, and can be read as a social, political, and cultural critique of stereotypical assumptions.
