About the exhibition
Curated by CarryOn Homes (Zoe Cinel, Peng Wu, Shun Jie Yong) for the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project (IARP) Home of Memories: Portraits & Stories of Iraqi Minnesotans is a traveling exhibition explores homemaking and memories in the portraits of Iraqi Minnesotans by Iraqi Minnesotan photographers Ahmed Alshaikhli and Jaafar Alnabi. The portraits and stories featured in Home of Memories give us a complex and intimate portrayal of what home was, is, and what it can be.
The exhibition was exhibited in various institutions in Minnesota: Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts (2020), Hennepin History Museum (2021), Rochester Art Center (2022), Duluth Art Institute (2022).
Partner: IARP and Iraqi Voices. Iraqi Voices is a collaborative arts storytelling lab run by the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project that pairs Iraqi-Minnesotans with professional artists to share their stories through an artistic platform. Since its start in 2012, the lab has produced 9 books, 15 award winning short documentary films and the groundbreaking theater production Birds Sing Differently Here premiering at the Guthrie Theater. The 2020 Iraqi Voices lab invited participants and photographers to look both inward and onwards as they explored home. The storytellers Lafta Abduljabbar Jassim, Rasol Albayati, Eynas Alnabi, Zena Khalil, Ronak Ali, Dhafer Abdulla, Abir Majid, and Hazha Las come together to compose a beautiful and intricate tapestry of home.
Traditional Iraqi music resonated in the gallery to accompany the exhibition.
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2020
Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts, Fridley, MN
This traveling exhibition was the result of a long-lasting partnership between the immigrant-led collective CarryOn Homes (Zoe Cinel, Shun Yong, Peng Wu) and the Iraqi American Reconciliation Project. IARP invited COH to curate through a collaborative and community-driven approach, an exhibition of photographs, storytelling and traditional artifacts. Two Iraqi-American photographers, Ahmed Alshaikhli and Jaafar Alnabi, captured the personalities and passions of Iraqi-Minnesotans and offered an authentic glimpse into their lives.
Interview excerpts accompanied the portraits and illuminated stories from a diverse range of Iraq’s regions, ethnicities, and religions, examining what home was, is, and can be. These excerpts were presented in both Arabic and English as wall labels. In addition to that, shorter quotes from these excerpts were also printed in vinyl and installed in the wall to "frame" each portrait.
The opening reception for this show was a vibrant celebration of the Iraqi-Minnesotan community and it featured traditional food, music and art activities.
About the photographers:
Jaafar Alnabi is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on filmmaking and visual effects. He is a 2016 graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design filmmaking BFA program. He moved to Minnesota in 1996 and is now based in New York City, working between NYC and Minneapolis.
Ahmed Alshaikhli is a seasoned photojournalist, working at prominent Iraqi and international television broadcasters and with the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in Iraq. He moved to the U.S. in 2014 and settled in Minnesota with his family in 2016.
Artist Ahmed Alshaikhli talks about his work to the visitors
Cultural artifacts donated by the community
Opening celebration
2021
Rochester Art Center, MN
For this iteration of the project, the curatorial team (CarryOn Homes) created a participatory activity for gallery visitors to better engage with the stories. The promotional postcard (designed by Peng Wu) had a double function and it was also available in the gallery. In the back of the postcard there was a prompt inviting visitors to reflect and contribute to the exhibition with their stories of home making. After writing, visitors could hang their postcards on the "journey wall". They contributed to implement a site specific participatory installation that showed a larger portrait of what home and belonging are.
Cultural artifacts donated by the Iraqi immigrant community to the exhibition
Cultural artifacts donated by the Iraqi immigrant community to the exhibition
Cultural artifacts donated by the Iraqi immigrant community to the exhibition
Cultural artifacts donated by the Iraqi immigrant community to the exhibition
Interactive "home" wall
Interactive "home" wall
Interactive "home" wall
During the exhibition we invited the artists to give talks in conversation with the portrayed community members.
Rochester has one of the biggest Iraqi communities in Minnesota. To implement the impact of the exhibition on the community, we organized a Summer Celebration event in partnership with the Iraqi Community and the Rochester Art Center. Visitors could eat traditional Iraqi food from a local restaurant, enjoy traditional art and craft, attend music and dance performances, calligraphy and language workshops.
Documentation by Zoe Cinel and Kali Morrison
2022
Duluth Art Institute
For this iteration of the project, the curatorial (CarryOn Homes) implemented the experience by adding a series of mirrored light boxes with engraved quotes from the interviews on them. The quotes are in Arabic and English. In the mirrored surface, visitors can see themselves reflected along with the quotes and with the portraits. This creative curatorial strategy fostered a sense of closeness to the stories and portraits. It also took advantage of the unique shape of this corridor gallery, creating an immersive experience for all visitors.
Due to its success in the previous iteration of this project, we decided to include the "journey wall" again, and give visitors a chance to share their stories of home and belonging using the back side of a promotional postcard.
Press
New exhibit brings Minnesota’s Iraqi Americans to life: A rich portrait of regions, religions, and professions. Pictures also help illuminate the life of photographer Jaafar Alnabi, an Iraqi immigrant to Minneapolis. Sheila Regan. Published on Sahnan Journal, October 9, 2020. https://sahanjournal.com/arts/minnesota-iraqi-immigrants-photo-exhibit/
