HAYDER ALI

The continuing wars and terrorism have left deep and painful scars in the memory of the Iraqi people. These wars have not been neat and clean, or fresh and dry, without consequences. There is not a body or soul left untouched in Iraq. The wars made deep wounds that have become part of our soul, so they can never be forgotten.

My art books, or Dafatir, are part of my mourning for the National Library of Iraq, which was assassinated by the hands of the new Mongols, uncontrollable mobs and terrorists. My books are witnesses to a period of catastrophe that has driven nails into the body of our culture and our civilization’s achievements.

My works are also about reprocessing the elements of our environment. Throughout our long history, Mesopotamian culture is full of such examples. I took elements such as the book and the palm frond and altered their usual use, releasing their buried and inherent expressive power and re-presenting them as art.

My oil paintings are also part of this vast memory of human interaction witthe environment. They are loaded with such memory — conscious and unconscious. The result is a true expression of the harmony of nature and the human condition, symbolizing the concerns of humanity and the community. They remind us that beauty is not just memory past but a work in progress.

Time and movement are two connected concepts in my works. Movement has a circular shape, a life cycle that transfers from beginning until the end. In a single moment or a whole lifetime, the present is constantly moving to the past, and vice versa. Time practices its existence without the need of the mechanical controls and calculations of an alarm clock. Art is an internal meditation concerned with understanding and expressing the external world events.