![The Fires of Kuwait](/web/20061029120432im_/http://www.civilization.ca/cultur/cespays/images/pay2_02p2a.gif)
The Fires of Kuwait, 1991
From the series A series of events 1991
Oil on acetate Lent by the artist
(Photo: Harry Foster © Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation)
" It was a winter evening and we were watching television.
The program was interrupted by a news bulletin. The Gulf War had started.
I had lived in Saudi Arabia for nine years, and it was a shock to see the
bombs falling. Wars had become like video games. They even looked pretty
and very artistic on TV ...
We were watching a video game, but with real
people being hurt. That's when I started A series of events 1991. "
Excerpt from the artist's statement
Born in Cairo in 1944 to parents of Lebanese origin, Hannah Alpha has lived in Egypt,
Lebanon, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, all stages of a long journey that eventually led her
to Canada. She has lived in Montreal since 1981.
![Hannah Alpha (centre) with her spouse Richard Alpha and her daughter Pascale Alpha](/web/20061029120432im_/http://www.civilization.ca/cultur/cespays/images/pay2_02p3.jpg)
Hannah Alpha (centre) with her spouse Richard Alpha and her daughter Pascale Alpha,
Pierrefonds, Quebec, 1999
Camille Zakharia
Iris digital prints
Collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization
This painter began her training at the Heliopolis School of Art in Egypt and took
courses at Beirut's American University, as well as at McGill University upon her
arrival in Montreal. She has also led drawing and painting workshops in Lebanon and
in Montreal (Saidye Bronfman Centre). It was in Saudi Arabia that she began to distance
herself from realistic portrayal in order to involve herself in abstract art and the
expression of pure emotion.
Preoccupied, above all, with the problematics of surface and depth, she also
integrates writings in different languages, and even Pharaonic hieroglyphs, into
her art. Painting has been for her a means to exorcise pain, as her series on Lebanon
and on the Gulf War clearly depict: When I arrived here, I painted a series called
"The Sinking Ship," and it was really Lebanon that was going under . . . harsh
colours and water. Since that time, her approach to art has become more personal
and more serene: As one matures, one returns to oneself.
Hannah Alpha has several solo exhibitions to her credit, in Saudi Arabia and in
Canada, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Her works are also included
in various public and private collections.
hannahalpha@hotmail.com
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