Ayad Alqaragholli

ARTIST STATEMENT

The figure is very important in art history. The first artists drew figures on the walls of caves and in time they then began to make obelisks. Afterwards they made figures of heroes from their history in the form of sculptures. The contemporary human can read the story of the history of the world from the artwork that has been produced throughout the ages.

The figure has accompanied me in my mind since I was a child, because I grew up in the region of Ur, southern Iraq and all around me was the history of Samaria which made a big impression on me. Therefore this influenced me to become an artist and sculptor.

My artwork is a documentary from what I see in my daily life. The figure in my artwork means love, land, peace and freedom and modern history needs to translate and document reality. In philosophy the meaning of art is about the history of mankind.

All my artwork is built on two things - form and idea, narrative and beauty. The idea for my artwork begins in my mind as a dream about humans, then animals and ending with birds. Also I connect the two different cultures of Samaria and Australia in my artwork which reflects the old world and the new world, so I adapt the old to become new and reflect this in what I produce. My memory carries a lot of observations from my childhood through to my new homeland and peace in Australia... some things are sad and some things are happy and ending with peace. In the past my artwork meant sadness and in the present it means peace.

I use many materials in my artwork but my favourite is bronze because bronze is a material that has been used throughout history, it has the 'smell' of history.

What makes me glad is when I see somebody who shows kindness to another person and also the sound of birds in the morning inspire me to be creative in the new day, but mostly it gives me satisfaction to make a sculpture of a figure which is part of history.

 Curriculum Vitae