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Please join us at [CONTAINER] on July 28th at 11 am for a Public Engagement with Turner Carroll Gallery artist Meridel Rubenstein and her collaborators, artist/conservator at the Iraq Museum, Nawar Ihsan in Baghdad, and ceramicist Shel Neymark in Shel Neymark Architectural Ceramics.
Their tile project, Inanna Returns to the Mesopotamian Marshes, will be on view as ceramic relief tiles, as will Mesopotamian Embroidered Wedding Blankets. Border tiles will be available for sale.
Immerse yourself in a unique opportunity to explore the cultural and environmental significance of the Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden project. This project, a recipient of one of this year's Anonymous Was a Woman environmental grants (NY Foundation for the Arts), is not just about cleaning the waste of 8000 people. It's about creating a beautiful and culturally significant green park near one possible site of the historic garden of Eden. Your presence and support will make a difference.
The previous local activities, such as displaying historical and contemporary Mesopotamian Embroidered Wedding blankets at IFAM in 2019 and showcasing artwork at [CONTAINER] in 2023, have influenced the garden design. With the first third of the 10-acre garden now constructed, this award has allowed Rubenstein to focus on the first artistic details of the garden. The Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden has been featured at the Hamburg Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in the exhibition Water Pressure: Designing for the Future, in the film Our Blue World, and in many publications, showcasing its profound impact on the environment and culture. Your support can help us continue this impactful work.
The subject of the grant and the first ceramic panel is the goddess, Inanna, and her return to the Mesopotamian Marshes. Inanna, later called Ishtar, is one of the prominent Mesopotamian goddesses of fertility, flood, and war. Inanna is revered worldwide as a powerful icon. Inanna apocryphally founded Uruk, not Gilgamesh. She was the subject of poems and hymns, the first cuneiform translations, and the first signed texts. The writer was Enheduanna, a priestess. Although ancient and historic images are welcome, it's challenging to make or exhibit public images of women in Iraq. We honor marsh women with these tile works by depicting them in an ancient and historic style. The second panel features a historic marsh woman. Both panels have been created based on examples from antiquity or historical photos.
Your support is not just appreciated; it's crucial to making the Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden project a success. Inanna, the goddess, will greet visitors to the ten-acre wastewater garden that we are building. We are actively raising funds to finish this significant project. Until the garden is ready, these panels will go to Baghdad, where they will be on display. We hope that the Iraq Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities will exhibit them in the Fall. They can also travel to Museums in Nasariyah, Babylon, and Basra. We look forward to your contribution and to making this project a success with your support.