28/05/15
Creating art out of Iraq's darkness
Alfraji's first recollection of black shapes is from his childhood in Iraq when the family would commemorate the Day of Ashura and both men and women would dress in black to mourn the death of Imam Hussein. He recalls his mother boiling pigment in water to dye clothes black before hanging them on the washing line. When the sun would rise, then fall, the light changed and the shadour (a black cloak for women) would look like a figure with a head and two arms. [ read more ]