Sadik Kwaish Alfraji: In search of lost Bagdad

Abstract

Published with an eponymous exhibition in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, this catalogue provides an overview of works created there by immigrant Iraqi artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji between 2016 and 2021, together with the oeuvre he produced in Iraq in the 1980s. Central to this cartography is a reflection on Baghdad, the artist's own family history of migration, and his experiences in Iraq during the turbulent years he spent working there. His characteristic black linework and melancholic undertone is immediately noticeable, symbolic of the Baghdad of old, a cosmopolitan capital that is now a thing of the past. These are stories of migration and loss, but also of rising above hardship.

Contents

Mapping passage : Sadik Kwaish Alfraji's stories of migration and loss -- Once Upon a Time, Hadiqat al Umma (2017) -- In search of lost Baghdad (2017) -- Interview with Sadik Kwaish Alfraji -- Books of Passage, Chapter 2 : Those Houses Behind the Army Canal (2021) -- Books of Passage, Chapter 1 : The River That Was In the South (2019) -- A letter to Sadik Kwaish Alfraji -- Brief aan Sadik Kwaish Alfraji -- I Am the Hunter, I Am the Prey (2017) -- Ali's Boat (2014-2015) -- Baghdad - Amsterdam -- Sadik Kwaish Alfraji : the Baghdad Years -- Works 1983-1990 -- We Scream But Nothing Changes (2019-2021).