Hayv Kahraman

Dr. Miriam Ticktin on Havy Kahraman's exhibition Silence Is Gold:

"The number of immigrants and refugees accepted in the United States and in Europe - and in the global North more generally — has been steadily decreasing, to the point where one’s case must be truly exceptional in order to be legally recognized. Border walls are being built at an unprecedented rate – there were 70 globally at the last count, versus 15 in 1990 -- marking a new global right-wing populist politics of border closure. But the unwillingness to let people in, no matter how much they are suffering, is not new, of course. In Silence is Gold, Iraqi-born artist Hayv Kahraman is inspired by the mass exodus of Kurds from Iraq in April 1991, that she herself was a part of, as a child. This exodus of 3 million people was prompted by what was largely understood as chemical weapons attacks on the Kurdish towns, by Saddam Hussein’s government. Her work grapples with how the exodus was portrayed in the global North, and what elicited attention and resources for those who were fleeing. How can situations of suffering and violence be portrayed, without erasing the dignity of those who suffer, without representing them as victims, as uncivilized and unable to care for themselves? To me, Kahraman’s haunting work suggests that humanitarian imagery requires commodification, sexualization, hierarchy. But thanks to her, we can see this directly, stare it in the face; she exposes humanitarianism as both compelling and corrupt, beautiful in theory and dependent on racialized, non-innocent desires. But in so doing, she creates an opening, giving us a chance to take a different type of responsibility."

Kahraman has had numerous solo exhibitions including, "Hayv Kahraman: Acts of Reparation," Contemporary Art Museum (CAM), St. Louis; "Havy Kahraman," Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; "A Change of Place: Four Solo Exhibitions," The School, Kinderhook; "Audible Inaudible, Third Line Gallery, Dubai; and "Re-Weaving Migrant Inscriptions," Jack Shainman, New York. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions including: "The Art Show: Art of the New Millennium in the Taguchi Art Collection," The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma; "Making Her Mark," Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury; "No Man’s Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection," Miami which traveled to the National Museum of Women Artists, Washington DC; "Us Is Them," The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus; "Piece by Piece: Building a Collection," Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; Echoes: Islamic Art and Contemporary Artists, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; "The Jameel Prize 2011 – Shortlist Exhibition," Victoria and Albert Museum, London which traveled to venues including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Cantor Center, Stanford University; and "Fertile Crescent," Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton. Her work is included in several public collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; MATHAF Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; American Embassy, Baghdad Iraq; the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.