I grew up in an environment, where there was no space for art, where people just thought to survive. However the first year of primary school I felt how much I was interested in drawing, I started to sketch everything around me. Discovering my painting skills at school, the only subject I felt really close to, I was encouraged by my tutors to carry on. I decided to study art at the Institute of Art in Musol (Iraq 1990-1), and the Institute of Art in Sulaymania, Kurdistan (Iraq 1992-5).
From 1993 some developments in the art education system occurred in Kurdistan and I started to get close to Modern art, on a theoretical and practical level.
Hataw Kurdish Dance group - UK
I became more aware of the art developments in the Western society, which had been obstructed for years and years by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Through these changes I became involved with contemporary art, an art form that was unimaginable before in Kurdistan. I also got concerned with the Western art history from the Classics, the Renaissance, the Modernists, to nowadays’ art currents.
Because of the unstable and unsafe situation in Iraq, I had to leave Kurdistan and I arrived in the UK in 2000, hoping to start with a better and new life. In my country I had already gathered a lot of theoretical information about this society, but now I had to experience it in reality. I used all the offered opportunities to establish myself as an artist and to quest my identity. I expect to take but also to add something to this multicultural environment. I studied a BA in Fine Art at Lincoln University (UK 2000-4) and as an individual artist I got involved with various events, across the UK and in Europe.
Hataw Kurdish Dance group - UK
Due to the conflicts in Iraq, a lot of Kurdish had to flee the country and many ended up in Hull, in the city I live. As a Kurd but also as an artist, I felt as my responsibility to show the Kurdish culture through different artistic activities. I was member of Yorkshire Kurd, a music group mixing English and Kurdish influences. I also created HATAW, a Kurdish dance group, which performed traditional Kurdish dances, as well as music, in various cities in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Director of ArtRole, Cultures Exchange Project, Europe, UK, Middle East, Kurdistan-Iraq.