Lot Essay
With its recognisable fgure, Between Two Points painted in 2014 demonstrates Sadik Alfraji's interest in Existentialist themes and the everyday experiences that shape humankind. The shadowy protagonist who occupies his interdisciplinary works, and is often shown in profile, represents a black void of existence, a sort of filter that allows Alfraji to explore the fundamental intricacies of being, expressed in the movement of the body and its subtle infections as it navigates the gravity of modern life. Depicting his recurring figure through a variety of media, Alfraji often reflects his own narrative, particularly the loss, fragmentation, and suspension in time that underline the daily experiences of exiles, an artistic trajectory that has established him as a leading Iraqi artist.
The rendering of his character as a charcoal-coloured silhouette also functions as a central component of the artist's aesthetic through which formal properties are reduced to their most basic level in order to allow the viewer to enter the laden world of his subject. Ink is a medium that Alfraji finds particularly successful in communicating the range of emotions that arise when depicting the fragile state of his native Iraq, as its chemical make up and tendency to dry quickly demand an intensity from the artist and requires the ability to work intuitively.
Between Two Points was featured in the artist's large-scale solo show Biography of Head, which highlighted over a dozen recent multimedia works and was held at the Beirut Exhibition Center in March 2014.
(Maymanah Farhat, 2014).
The rendering of his character as a charcoal-coloured silhouette also functions as a central component of the artist's aesthetic through which formal properties are reduced to their most basic level in order to allow the viewer to enter the laden world of his subject. Ink is a medium that Alfraji finds particularly successful in communicating the range of emotions that arise when depicting the fragile state of his native Iraq, as its chemical make up and tendency to dry quickly demand an intensity from the artist and requires the ability to work intuitively.
Between Two Points was featured in the artist's large-scale solo show Biography of Head, which highlighted over a dozen recent multimedia works and was held at the Beirut Exhibition Center in March 2014.
(Maymanah Farhat, 2014).