Sadik Kwaish Alfraji: Driven by Storms (Ali’s Boat)

Ayyam Gallery London is pleased to announce Driven by Storms (Ali’s Boat), the solo show of leading Iraqi artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji. Excerpted from Alfraji’s critically acclaimed large-scale exhibition, the multimedia installation describes a simple exchange between the artist and his nephew, Ali, who expressed his longing to escape war-torn Baghdad in a handwritten letter. After receiving the child’s message, however, Alfraji was haunted by the image of a small boat that Ali included to illustrate his dream of floating away from the devastation of Iraq after the 2003 American-led invasion to the safety of the Netherlands where the artist is based. In an accompanying statement Alfraji describes having a similar dream as a young man who longed to escape the misery of his impoverished neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital, which became an enduring site of death and mourning during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.