Fragile Construct at Meem Gallery includes paintings and sculptures as well as multimedia works
The Malwiya minaret of Samarra was a familiar site for Walid Siti during his bus travels between Iraqi Kurdistan and the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, from which he graduated in 1976.
A spiralling conical tower of ochre hues, the minaret is a looming remnant of the mosque that was built in the 9th century. The Great Mosque of Samarra, commissioned by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil, was the world’s largest in its time. Today, only its outer wall and minaret remain.
The minaret had a lasting impression on Siti, growing stronger in his memory after he left Iraq in the 1980s. Escaping Baathist persecution, he travelled to the former Yugoslavia and eventually settled in London. To the artist in exile, who kept watch on the region’s shifting political developments from afar, the landmark became a symbol of power – or rather, its precarious nature and fragility.
