Iranian Artist Minoo Emami's Performance and Quilt Burning

Detail of Minoo Emami's Body Quilt, Photo credit: Michael Vahrenwald.

Please join us on the lawn of Harry Jack Gray this Saturday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m., for exhibiting artist Minoo Emami's performance entitled, Body Quilt: A Fire for Peace. In this 30-minute performance, Emami will be joined by women from a variety of backgrounds as she carries out mourning rituals based on Kurdish traditions. Emami expresses her grief through song, poetry, body language, and the addition of mud to her hair and clothing—an outward sign of inner sorrow and loss. In the final act, her large quilt of paintings will be covered in “tears” poured from traditional tear-catching vessels before it is set on fire. In lighting her paintings on fire, Emami, a victim of war herself, sacrifices her own intellectual and artistic being as an act of protest and a call for an end to all war and violence. The event is free and open to the public. 

This event is held in conjunction with the exhibition in Joseloff Gallery, Minoo Emami: Under My Veil, which will be open during the performance on Saturday, Nov. 11, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. In honor of Veterans' Day, a reflective activity that encourages visitors to leave messages of support for those impacted by war will also be available in the gallery. The exhibition runs through Dec. 16, and is sponsored by a grant from the Connecticut Humanities Council and the Joseloff Gallery Programs Fund held by Hartford Art School Endowment, Inc.