MTWTF SS

…clear falsehood contained in both collections of images. ¶ On the front of the poster, MTWTF presents a 6 x 12 grid of UFOs and effigy heads, tightly cropped so that they can be compared as a set, without the visual evidence provided by their backgrounds. On the back of the poster, the caption or annotation that originally appeared alongside each photo doubles-down on its questionable truth claim.
 ¶ Two PMS blacks used to print the poster suggest the variety of papers and range of print qualities included in the exhibit. 
 ¶ Every Building in Baghdad brought together two photographic collections created by the Iranian architect Rifat Chadirji and preserved at the Arab Image Foundation in Beruit. The first collection is Chadirji’s own photo-documentation of the buildings he designed for the Iranian State, many of which were fully or partially destroyed in the second…

…Gulf War. The second features Chardirji’s photos documenting everyday Arab life and social practices within Baghdad’s public spaces, which were endangered by postwar development and beginning to wain. The two collections act as counterpoints within the exhibition.
 ¶ The gridded photos on MTWTF’s poster are from the Arab streetlife collection; specifically, a category labeled “signs,” which features storefronts, street signs, and public political posters from the Arab area in which Chadirji lived. The gridded photos create an graphic streetscape to represent one that no longer exists.
 ¶ This particular design accompanied a version of the exhibition held at Los Angeles’ LA X ART gallery and is printed in bluish-black ink on a white sheet, covered by a light pink flood coat to suggest the vernacular printing techniques from another time and place.