Hampstead Lane was transformed last week as Khulood’s gloriously coloured abstracts glowed on our walls – while her torrents of letters tumbled off plinths, dragooned themselves into luminous blue squares….
…. and ran away to decorate her scarves…
The mood was definitely Iraqi – so it was wonderful to have Rihab and her oud to give voice to Khulood’s works.
As Rihab said – although they are now technically different countries, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine share music, culture, poetry, language – and, sadly, horribly troubled histories. So the music that she played could as well have been played in Khulood’s home city of Baghdad as in Rihab’s home city of Homs. Here she is playing Biography of a Bubble and Perfume of a gypsy.
However, much though she loves to play the traditional music of Syria, since Rihab has been living and playing in the UK she has been also been creating her own. The following is one of her beautifully delicate compositions.
So, a lovely evening was had by all – a number of Christmas presents were bought, some delicous Iraqi snacks were consumed, the artists were toasted in red, white and pink and everyone went home relaxed and replete.
If you would like to contact Rihab you can do so via her site here.
If you would like to contact Khulood you can do so via her site here.
If you are interested in buying a a scarf, T-shirt or print (all money for Christmas sales goes to the charity with which Khulood works in Baghdad caring for orphaned children) you could also email her.
The T-shirts say either ‘Liberty’ or ‘Humanity’ in cuneiform and cost £25 each (all sizes), the scarves are long and elegant and cost £75 and the embossed limited edition prints (below is the lovely one Khulood gave me and which now graces my wall) cost £120 – or £150 for the gold leaf ones!
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