Hanaa Malallah

Hanaa Malallah is an Iraqi artist and educator living in London, England. She is noted for developing the technique called the Ruins Technique in which found objects are incorporated into artwork. 

The turmoil in Iraq through the 1980s was pivotal to Malallah's work. Remaining in Iraq throughout the Gulf War and the Iran-Iraq War greatly influenced her work. Along with a group of artists known as the "Eighties Generation", her work reflected the current state of Iraqi society and drew inspiration from relics in the Iraq Archaeological Museum. 

Malallah had to leave Iraq following death threats from militias who had already murdered two of her colleagues. Malallah began an art residency at L'Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris. In 2008 she moved to London, having been offered a fellowship by S.O.A.S. 

Malallah developed Ruins Technique while she was living in Iraq in the 1980s. Due to a lack of art material in war turn Iraq, she turned to items that were readily available in her immediate surroundings, such as burnt paper, torn cloth, barbed wire, splintered wood and bullets. 

One of Malallah's abstract art techniques is her signature which includes the numbers "5.50.1.1.40.1.30.30.5". Each of these numbers correspond to a part of the Arabic alphabet. These numbers are important to Malallah because of how the Mesopotamians wrote with shapes instead of letters.
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 Her work is represented in the British Museum's permanent collection and is also included in the collections of Jordan's Museum of Fine Arts in Amman, and the Centre for Modern Art in Baghdad. Malallah received a prize awarded by the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization.