Sadik Kwaish Alfraji

The work dates from the artist’s final year of study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad, when he was drafted into the Iraqi army during the Iran-Iraq war. Here, the expressiveness of graphic arts is mixed with forms inspired by manuscripts, talismans and the human and animal body. Alfraji entitled some of his works Elegy because of his swooping feeling of the death of dreams and the cruelty of the world. He describes it as an adventure full of passion, enthusiasm and daring to sneak into the print workshop of the Academy of Arts after school to print the work with the etching press in time to send it to the Ljubljana Biennale.