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.
"The artist's book, 'I want to become a prophet' links my current work in other media with the name of the street, Al-Mutanabbi. The street name refers to the great medieval Iraqi poet, Al-Mutanabbi (915-965), whose name actually means, 'the one who wanted to become a prophet.' Al-Mutanabbi's nickname is also related to the poet's rather arrogant sense of pride and tendency to boast, even in his verses, as well as his personal political ambitions. His poetry, in fact, often deals with acts of courage, panegyrics, and battles, and his own death (he was killed in a conflict) is possibly linked to his sense of superiority. In 'I want to become a prophet, ' photographs of different 'famous' children are transferred onto both sides of thin Japanese paper, which is then varnished to amplify its transparency. The faces on both sides merge into each other and become difficult to recognise. Do these little boys all want to grow into 'prophets?' Will their visions contribute to humanity's growth, or to further destruction and death, like that experienced by the bookshop owners of al-Mutanabbi Street? Verses from the poetry of Al-Mutanabbi (translated into English) are also included in the book, adding to the complex and multi-layered reading of the faces and identities. Throughout 2011, I have been working on a series of drawings of well-known male figures in international political arenas. All these drawings represent these individuals when they were children, and hence, still 'unrecognisable, ' and unknown to the general public, and they invariably look 'cute' and innocent. Indeed, at that age, the faces do not tell us much about the differences that separate an Adolf Hitler from a Pope John Paul II. These drawings have been shown at the Nakagawa gallery in Tokyo in August 2011, and at St James Cavalier in Malta, in December 2011"--Artist's statement from the Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.
