Mandalas for Al Mutanabbi Street
by Sylvia M. Warham
This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.
"Whatever one's race, culture or creed, one can meditate using a mandala. These mandalas encourage meditations of those who died, the loss of ancient scholarly works, the loss of an intellectual community and the hopes and good wishes for its revival. The ribbon is white symbolising the thin thread of humanity and red for the intellctual and creative powers of the mind, which bind all artists and writers inextricably to Al-Mutanabbi Street. The box is hand-marbled in red with flowing patterns, symbolic of the flow of thoughts between all who meditate on the mandalas"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
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Medium: Paper, beads, red & white ribbon.
On March 5th, 2007, a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is located in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the longstanding heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community for centuries. In response to the attack, a San Francisco poet and bookseller, Beau Beausoleil, rallied a community of international artists and writers to produce a collection of letterpress-printed broadsides (poster-like works on paper), artists' books (unique works of art in book form), and an anthology of writing, all focused on expressing solidarity with Iraqi booksellers, writers and readers. The coalition of contributing artists calls itself Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition.
Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.
Sylvia Warham grew up in Lancashire, where she developed a love of moorlands and wild places. She began making artists books in 1985, and studied book illustration briefly at St. Martin's in the Fields, London. However, this was interrupted by a period of ill health. After a busy academic career, Sylvia came to watercolour painting later in life. She studied with professional artist Peter Woolley. Sylvia now lives on a farm in Devon, where she pursues her love of painting and artist's books. Her work can be seen at 'The Little Gallery on the Farm, ' in Shebbear, Devon.
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