It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq
21 Apr - 17 May 2009
Baghdad, Iraq. Courtesy Salon.com.
IT IS WHAT IT IS: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT IRAQ
April 21 - May 17, 2009
It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is a new work by British artist Jeremy Deller. The artist has invited a diverse group of individuals—including Iraq war veterans, journalists, scholars, and Iraqi nationals who have first-hand experience of Iraq —to take up residence at the Hammer Museum with the express purpose of encouraging discussion with visitors to the Museum. Jordan Elgrably, cofounder of the Levantine Cultural Center, is working with Deller and the Hammer to organize these experts. Elgrably, a Los Angeles-based writer, has been passionately committed to strengthening Arab/Muslim and Jewish relations for many years and has written on the topic extensively and organized many lectures and conferences about the region. Several confirmed participants include Issam Al-Askari whose family held many top positions in the Iraqi government prior to fleeing in 1958, Manal El-Shawaf Karim a Baghdad-born businesswoman who got her Master’s in Architecture at UCLA, and Sean Huze who served in Iraq from 2001-2005 and has since authored several critically acclaimed plays including Sand Storm: Stories from the Front and Weasel which debuted at The Kennedy Center's Page 2 Stage Festival. His third play, The Dragon Slayer, addresses post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the experience of combat in Iraq.
The remains of a car that was destroyed in Iraq will share the courtyard with the resident guest experts. This object is meant to stimulate dialogue and ground conversations in reality. From March though mid-April, Deller traveled aboard an RV (the destroyed car hitched to the back) with two Iraq experts and a writer, who documented the journey. The RV stopped at various cultural institutions in cities including Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Houston along the way to continue the conversation on a national scale, arriving at the Hammer Museum in April. It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is part of the Three M Project – a series by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, to commission, organize, and co-present new works of art. It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is curated at the New Museum by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator and Amy Mackie, Curatorial Assistant and for Creative Time by Nato Thompson, Curator. The project is presented in collaboration with Creative Time.
April 21 - May 17, 2009
It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is a new work by British artist Jeremy Deller. The artist has invited a diverse group of individuals—including Iraq war veterans, journalists, scholars, and Iraqi nationals who have first-hand experience of Iraq —to take up residence at the Hammer Museum with the express purpose of encouraging discussion with visitors to the Museum. Jordan Elgrably, cofounder of the Levantine Cultural Center, is working with Deller and the Hammer to organize these experts. Elgrably, a Los Angeles-based writer, has been passionately committed to strengthening Arab/Muslim and Jewish relations for many years and has written on the topic extensively and organized many lectures and conferences about the region. Several confirmed participants include Issam Al-Askari whose family held many top positions in the Iraqi government prior to fleeing in 1958, Manal El-Shawaf Karim a Baghdad-born businesswoman who got her Master’s in Architecture at UCLA, and Sean Huze who served in Iraq from 2001-2005 and has since authored several critically acclaimed plays including Sand Storm: Stories from the Front and Weasel which debuted at The Kennedy Center's Page 2 Stage Festival. His third play, The Dragon Slayer, addresses post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by the experience of combat in Iraq.
The remains of a car that was destroyed in Iraq will share the courtyard with the resident guest experts. This object is meant to stimulate dialogue and ground conversations in reality. From March though mid-April, Deller traveled aboard an RV (the destroyed car hitched to the back) with two Iraq experts and a writer, who documented the journey. The RV stopped at various cultural institutions in cities including Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Houston along the way to continue the conversation on a national scale, arriving at the Hammer Museum in April. It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is part of the Three M Project – a series by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, to commission, organize, and co-present new works of art. It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq is curated at the New Museum by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator and Amy Mackie, Curatorial Assistant and for Creative Time by Nato Thompson, Curator. The project is presented in collaboration with Creative Time.