Instantly identifiable through basic, black-and-white style, the art of Sadik Kwaish Alfraji is an exploration of what he describes as “the problem of existence”. In drawings, paintings, video animations, art books, graphics and installations, the Netherlands-based Iraqi artist—among the most prominent in the diaspora—follows a shadowy, solitary protagonist who is rendered as a mere charcoal silhouette. This itself speaks volumes.
Life and colour, identity and substance have been drained out of him. And his helpless black void of a body often has its back bent, hands unfree, as though stuck to the sides or tied behind. We find the recurring figure in bleak, psychologically heavy environments—experiencing acutely the loss, fragmentation of the self and lapses in time that underline the state of exile.
