LONDON.- Artspace London exhibits Witness From Baghdad in 2013 - the ten-year anniversary of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq that resulted in the Ba'athist Iraqi government being deposed. Halim Al Karim's approach to his photography relies heavily on his attempt to understand his past; trying to comprehend what happened to him and his country. His own personal view of people and of the world depicted in his work can be symbolically enlarged to incorporate general and international interpretations. Forced to flee Iraq in 1991 for political reasons, Halim al Karim's life has been directedby a desire to avert the world's realities. Internationally recognised for his photographic abstraction, Al Karim'send product shows the solace he seeks in his labyrinthine imagination. Halim Al Karim has created a style and oeuvre of art that does not give a descriptive narrative; but rather, a concealed vision of realities that are not acknowledged within his societyThe originality of Al Karim's work,by rendering his portraits out of focus or covered by a veil,emphasises the dimension of secrecy of his subjects lives. Concerned with the on-going and unresolved issues in urban society, Halim Al Karim's striking works dwell on the evolving mentality behind these matters, especially those related to violence. He is asking the viewer to take the initiative and live the part of the image that hides another representation of the truth. Witness From Baghdad will showcase some of Al Karim's earliest photographs - when he began experimenting with the blurred visions of his subjects - alongside his most iconic works. With his work perpetually bridging the gap between photographic reality and optical illusion, Halim al Karim's creations strongly reflect the psychological desire to escape as well as the ramifications of his dreams and his personal experience of love and war. For Halim al Karim, photography is the perfect medium in which to express himself: "it retains anchors of our visual reality and can be manipulated to show altered states of mind. Compositionally out of focus, sometimes rendered more mysterious under a veil of silk, my photographs imply an uncertainty of context, time and place, embodying the past, present and future simultaneously."

Jan 16, 2013 - Feb 23, 2013