Art Exhibition

First Weekends’ resident guest in August is Iraqi artist Rashad Salim. London based Rashad will assemble a sculpture Buffalo Dragon from bicycle parts, exhibit from his Re-piano series and will be working on his new Iraqi Coracle project.

Rashad’s latest work is his Iraqi Coracle project, exploring traditional craft within emerging Iraqi art practice. A coracle (also known as a guffa) is a small boat of ancient design made of strong saplings or reeds that are interwoven and then may be covered with bitumen or animal skins. In Iraqi amulets groups of seven have immense resonance and historical meaning. Rashad will make seven coracles that he will float on the Thames before taking them to Iraq.

In 1978 Salim was a member of Thor Heyerdahl’s reed boat expedition from the river Tigris to Djibouti.

Buffalo Dragon uses bicycle parts to create an elongated sculpture. Handlebars are worked into Sumerian cuneiform and visitors are encouraged to participate. This work coincides with the Mayor of London’s ‘Ride London’ festival of cycling which falls on the same weekend.

Re-piano is an ongoing project of Rashad’s which reclaims, reinvents and renews disused and battered pianos, offering them regeneration in a very different context.

Rashad has trained at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and at St Martin’s School of Art in London. He has worked with the British Museum and the United Nations as an artist, advisor and cultural researcher.

Trinity Buoy Wharf artist Andrew Baldwin’s sculpture garden will also be open for visitors to enjoy.