I know that I can choose, but I cannot confirm that I am free…

The door should be somewhere

“I know that I can choose, but I cannot confirm that I am free, for my choices are always confined to conditions beyond my will.”

This is how the Iraqi born artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji presents his exhibitions “An introduction to the philosophy of freedom” in the Stads gallery in Amersfoort, Netherlands. As he does not believe in limiting his art work to one form of expression, his exhibition is a rich experience where the experience itself is what matters. Sometimes, they are plays of the art work with its title, impregnated  with philosophical connotations and dark presence emphasized with the use of  colors. The presence of memories from his homeland Iraq in his works takes the viewer through a path of the artists’ personal and emotional experiences.

Photos of my father & my mother

His latest works were part of a group exhibition held in the Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modren Art in 2011 under the title (Told / Untold / Retold). One of the exhibited art works is an interesting video painting titled ” The house that my father built, (once upon a time)”.

Nevertheless, it was interesting for us to also see his developing artistic style through watching chronologically his art works. We post here one of his older works and a poem:

“I do not paint out of luxury,
and do not seek beauty,
but as an attempt to reason the world and myself….

Yet, always,
the result does not exceed a restless
sort of crying.”

Elusive Beauty, 2011