20 Profile
Sadik Kwaish Alfraji at the Venice Biennale
by Ambika Rajgopal
Sadik Kwaish Alfraji (b 1960, Baghdad, Iraq) and received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting and Plastic Art from the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad in 1987 and a High Diploma in Graphic Design from CHK Constantijn Huygens, Netherlands in 2000. He now lives and works in Amersfoort, Te Netherlands. Tis year he was asked by Te Ruya Foundation, the commissioning organisation of the Iraq Pavilion at the Venice Biennale to create works for the 2017 event. Te new series, I am Te Hunter/I am Te Prey, which explores the dual nature of experiences such as love, which Alfraji views as a form of hunting. Using references that span the history of civilisation and include everything from language to ancient warfare, Alfraji details this aspect of the human condition in drawings, a video animation, and ready- made objects. He discusses this latest work with Asian Art Newspaper in the interview below.
ASIAN ART NEWSPAPER: Why did you choose the theme of hunting to occupy such a centre stage in your latest series, I am the Hunter/I am the Prey? SADIK KWAISH ALFRAJI: Tis year’s theme for the Iraq pavilion exhibition is ‘the archaic’. Within this concept, I was speculating about my body of work. Te theme of hunting was always on my mind and I was thinking about it in a dialectic way. I considered that the hunter is the prey at the same time that the prey is also simultaneously the hunter. It is not about who kills who, rather it is about the relationship between the meaning of the prey and the hunter. It is about the dialectic relation between these two meanings, as it is impossible to hunt for nothing – you need to be hunted by something to follow it. Actually, you cannot be a hunter without being prey. Te relation of love is a very clear example – it is not only in our daily life, but in our own history as well.
AAN: You draw from myriad references to address the dialectic relation between the hunt. How do these references visually fit within the Iraq Pavilion’s theme of ‘archaic’? SKA: My work in the Iraq pavilion is a kind of indexing of the hunting process that is why I used so many sources in this work. I was searching for images and texts that can be perfectly used within this concept. Te idea of the hunt and the theme of archaic are tied together in history. When I was mulling over the theme of the hunt, I found that history itself is following the dialectic of the hunter and the prey. Tis could fit
ASIAN ART OCTOBER 2017
I AM THE HUNTER, I AM THE PREY IN THE
IRAQI PAVILION AT THIS YEAR’S VENICE BIENNALE
About Hunt, About Human (2017), drawing in mixed media installation, graphite pencil, ink and watercolour on handmade paper, 14.5 x 10 cm. Courtesy the artist and Ruya Foundation © Sadik Kwaish Alfraji
within the idea of the archaic – within the meaning that the idea of the hunter is always prevalent. It is not the traditional idea of the hunt between the pursuer and the pursued, which is how it started, but it still continues to have a relevance within our lives. It is the relation between our surroundings and who we are. Now, the idea of archaic in this exhibition – when taken as part of the history of Iraq – works perfectly, as the idea of hunting is part of the culture and so well represented when
you think about the texts and the images from the past.
AAN: In your artworks, hunting goes beyond the literal interpretation of the term to encompass themes like love, seduction, and pursuit, among others. Do you perceive the hunter and the prey as only a dichotomous relationship, or can there be hidden layers within this seeming duality? SKA: In our lives, it is very difficult to assume that things are always
specified. It is not just a dual relationship. Call it whatever you want, there are always layers, conditions, positions, mechanisms, and situations, swirling between and around. Tere is no clear definition that says this is the relation between the hunter and the prey. You can look at them from the Hegelian philosophical standpoint (the rational alone is real) and how he perceived the relationship between master and slave. Tese kinds of relationships are made of multiple and complex layers which make a relation such as the hunter and the prey open to be seen or approached from many different angles.
I am Te Hunter, I am Te Prey (2017), still frame from animation in mixed media installation, work in progress at artist studio. Courtesy the artist and Ruya Foundation © Sadik Kwaish Alfraji
I am Te Hunter, I am Te Prey (2017), still frame from animation in mixed media installation, work in progress at artist studio. Courtesy the artist and Ruya Foundation © Sadik Kwaish Alfraji
AAN: Does the act of hunting become a metaphor for the imbalanced political bias, where the political force becomes the hunter and the proletariat becomes the prey? SKA: When I was working on this series, politics were not on my mind. Any point in our history can be examined within the idea of hunting, including politics. I was not specifically thinking about politics, but they are a part of it. My thoughts were on the ideas of mythology and history. Initially, war stems from politics, but eventually it overrides politics and becomes about co- resistance and human beings. Tat is why I did not pay too much attention to it. Also, politics did not give me clear examples of the act of hunting. Politics need to become a kind of act to enable examples, like war and contemporary occupy movements. Tese political acts have examples that relate to hunting and these examples are prevalent in my work, but not within the umbrella term of politics. My work comes through many other sources like mythology and books such as kitab tahawil sini al-‘alam, Abu Ma‘shar al-Balkhi … or
kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita (Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars), ’Abd al-Rahman al-Suf … and many others. Tese books talk about stars, but the images and illustrations exemplify the process of hunting, but within it the ideas of politics are prevalent. Tis concept is more about the philosophy about our existence than the philosophy of politics.
AAN: Language and visuals appear side by side in your artworks, making them read more like stories. How much influence does the heritage of Iraq play in your artworks? What part do text and visuals have in conveying a story? SKA: Talking about the heritage of Iraq is very painful for me. And, of course, it does play a crucial role in this work. You cannot see it directly within the work, but the criminal act of destruction of Iraqi heritage makes me think and work with these issues. I do not make a statement about the destruction of the heritage specifically in the work, but this subject is deeply personal for me. When I saw the destruction of the Mosul Museum, I cried a lot. I cried very, very hard. Tis is when I started working with and thinking about the idea of the prey. Te destruction of the heritage has affected and influenced me, yes. It made me work very closely with the idea of mythology and the many facets of Iraqi heritage. I believe that it is possible for the spirit or the idea of heritage to come alive again in another work, but how I do not quite know. It is very painful because I am an Iraqi as it is my heritage. I know these places, and have visited them. I have touched these objects and all of this forms part of my identity. In another sphere, it hurst me more as a human being and as a thinker. So it is this that also makes me think about our existence, about the meaning behind all this destruction.
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