{"id":24808,"date":"2023-02-05T10:10:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T08:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=24808"},"modified":"2023-02-05T10:10:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T08:10:35","slug":"lahib-jaddo-an-iraqi-artist-in-the-diaspora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/lahib-jaddo-an-iraqi-artist-in-the-diaspora\/","title":{"rendered":"Lahib Jaddo\u2014An Iraqi Artist in the Diaspora"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Based in Lubbock, Texas, Lahib Jaddo<\/a> has enjoyed a transnational and extensive career in the world of art. Since the early 1990s, her visual works have been displayed in solo and group exhibitions, including eight open and juried shows in 2022 alone, in destinations from California to Amman, Jordan, and multiple points in between. Championed in the state she calls home, Jaddo\u2019s work is held in numerous collections throughout Texas, and in private and public collections throughout North America and beyond. Jaddo\u2019s illustrated myths and narratives give grounding and purpose to the myriad moving parts of a life that transcends borders. Viewing her art conjures up notions of an invisible maternal hand making Ikebana<\/em>. Jaddo\u2019s artwork seems to depict an ongoing arrangement and rearrangement of cultures, ethnicities, and stories, and perhaps reclamation of a primeval family tree, too.<\/p>\n

Beginning with architectural studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Jaddo dove deeper into the discipline at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, and Texas Tech University, Lubbock. Adding to her repertoire a second master\u2019s degree in fine arts from Texas Tech, Jaddo landed appointments as professor and later dean in the College of Architecture at her Texas alma mater, where she still teaches today. As a sought-after artist, her work is showcased in national and international exhibitions, curated around themes such as freedom, migration, human and women\u2019s rights, and climate and social justice.<\/p>\n

When it comes to Iraq, Jaddo recalls a family that flourished the years before the Baath party seized power. Her parents were cornerstones of their Turkmen community and contributed to the founding of modern Iraq. In 1965, however, Jaddo\u2019s family was uprooted and, ever since, has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Iraq.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the 20th<\/sup> anniversary of the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, TMR talked with Jaddo about her Turkmen background, her experiences in Iraq, and her life today.<\/p>\n

The Turkmen ethnic group is one of the largest ethnicities in Iraq and thought to have origins in 7th<\/sup> century Central Asia. Geographically dispersed, at least in part by the Ottoman Empire, the Turkmen people live primarily across a slanted swath of Iraq, extending approximately from the country\u2019s northwestern corner to its mid-southeastern border. Speakers of a Turkish dialect, under Saddam Hussein\u2019s regime the Turkmen people were denied linguistic, cultural, and political rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"\"
\u201cWarda\u201d \u0648\u0631\u062f\u0647 \u0633\u06af\u064a\u062a\u0647\u0627 \u0645\u0646 \u062f\u0645\u0639 \u0627\u0644\u0639\u064a\u0648\u0646 (mixed media, 16×20″) is the name of a song from the Iraq of my childhood. It refers to a flower that is watered by tears. \u201cWarda,\u201d is part of a group of collages that I made while listening to \u201cWarda\u201d and other old Iraqi songs that I\u2019d not heard since 1965. Every Iraqi knows the song \u201cWarda\u201d because it was so often played on Iraqi radio and TV, especially between 1955-1965 when I was there. In a way, \u201cWarda\u201d the song is branded into our history.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n


\nMischa Geracoulis<\/strong>:\u00a0 What was early life in Iraq like for your family?<\/p>\n

Lahib Jaddo<\/strong>:\u00a0 My father\u2019s career as an irrigation engineer began around 1945, and concentrated on projects to control the flooding of the Tigris River. His work also included building roads, airports, and utility systems in Baghdad. Educated and forward-thinking, he wanted to marry an educated Turkmen woman. My mother had similar aspirations, broke with tradition, and decided against marrying a cousin. Through the Iraqi Turkmen network, my parents found each other and married in 1954. My mother was a schoolteacher, and later a principal. After devoting years to rearing us five kids, she changed careers. In the mid-1980s, she traveled to Japan to learn Ikebana<\/em>, the ancient Japanese art of flower-arranging. When she returned to Iraq, she shifted her teaching to the subjects of plants, flowers, and the art of arrangement.<\/p>\n