This is a key
By: Clay McGlamory
Contributors: Mutanabbī, Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn, 915 or 916-965, poet; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Half Ass Press; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: Half Ass Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Norfolk, VA
Language: eng
Subjects: Violence; Pictorial works; Booksellers and bookselling; Bombings; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Protest movements; Books and reading in art; Intellectual life; Social conditions; Censorship; Terrorism in art; In art; War and civilization; Vehicle bombs; Visual literature; Specimens; Artists' books; Freedom of speech in art; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: 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.

"My Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here book is a reflection of my thoughts and interpretations with the ideas of freedom, and how power, knowledge and education can influence and shift power and create or destroy freedoms. I used maps, computer keyboards, symbols representing the Middle East, repetition of words and keyed up colours to direct the viewer and lead their eyes through the compositions. It is my hope that viewers will be influenced positively and prompted to think about their own freedoms and search for knowledge"--Artist's statement from the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

"Clay McGlamory's dynamic use of ink, acrylic panels and light result in works that push the limits of stimulating viewers' optic nerves. These luminous woks, combined with kaleidoscopic prints, are an exciting experience in modular photographic imagery. Using backlighting further heightens luminosity, and modular multiplicity helps extend size and scale, thereby enhancing the visual"--The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art website (viewed July 6, 2015).
Notes: Printed in an edition of 4, with one artist proof.

Materials: Acrylic acreenprint and archival pigment print on Rives BFK and Stonehenge.

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.