For years, Saddek Wasil has been tussling iron, turning it into many successful works of art, which have been the center of attention in several exhibitions, workshops and meetings. His original diversified ideas have won him the praise of various arbitrators and set him apart from many other artists in Saudi Arabia.
Saddek, who descends from the holy city of Makkah, had elevated the status of a hard and unmalleable material which, unlike the rest of the Earthâs elements, does not originate from this planet. Iron, to which an entire chapter in the Holy Qurâan is dedicated, is a sacred solid matter sent from above for the benefit of mankind, as Allah says what can be translated as: âAnd We have sent down iron, wherein is strict violence, and (various) advantages for mankindâ (Qurâan: Chapter 57: Verse 25).
One would notice by observation that most of Wasilâs iron sculptures visually approximate post-modern art, conceptual art, and modern and post-sculpture art.
His varied art projects embrace many cognitive and psycho-social issues, including: his search for freedom, brutality, his creationsâ sense of futility, isolation, rage⌠These have been projected into some of his artistic qualities such as: fragmentation, nihilism, and capturing dramatic motions in the expressions of the human body through depicting spatial crackups and moral deterioration.
His visual articulacy in the use of iron may be attributed, perhaps, to his bold and honest expression of an ordinary man living in such difficult and complicated times, in an age overrun by conflicts, changes and inflections. His artworks are huge twisted diminishing structures with anomalous shapes and features. Though lacking in classical aesthetics, they hold in essence (aesthetics for ugliness) a representation of manâs defeat and his deep sensation of the twists and turns which he has endured. In this sense, the artist uses new components and examples that reflect his own superego.
The method Wasil uses to round elongated thin shapes into one structure embodying the notion of twists and turns is truly noteworthy in his artwork. Wasil continues to build his visual world through his sculptures by drawing faces with marginalized features as an allusion to mankindâs features in a time where falsity and deception prevail. Their faces are covered with masks peeking through the windows of reality, concealing their fear of life and people, hence they were physically produced from leftover scraps or recycled material made from aluminum boxes, nails, and pieces of plastic and used cables.
Wasil was skillful in stating his visual ideas which are based on the philosophy of formation of creatures and objects, a generative extension of varied humanization on which he based his previous works. Thus his projects portray enormous creatures, monsters, broken human parts, separated organs and limbs such as hands, fingers, feet, eyes, faces, as well as other creatures trapped in little glass bottles all trying to escape their eternal prison.
Dr. Sami Al Juraidi
Saddek Wasil is a Saudi sculptor whose main medium is metal and discarded metallic material. His powerful sculptures exuberate a rejection of binding stereotypes and an iron will to defeat material subjugation for the sake of spiritual freedom. His artwork is not to be understood as a present state, as it holds the promise of future success in overcoming chains, locks and closed boundaries.
Wasil was born in Makkah Al-Mukarrama in 1973. His mother was a seamstress and his father was a mechanic. Thus, Saddek became accustomed to working with his hands and spent much of his youth in his fatherâs garage, where he learned how to weld and work with metal, mainly iron. During his free time, he often salvaged discarded car parts and metal scraps to create amorphous figures, distorted bodies and human masks from his imagination:
âIâm a hoarder, I donât like to throw anything away. I donât like the idea of discarding things. Nowadays, everything or everyone is dispensable. I suppose I try to show that you can find value in anything, or anyoneâ.
As with many artists, Saddek is influenced by his surroundings and the happenings of the world around him, with particular focus on humans and human emotions. In Makkah, Wasil is a witness to the daily struggles of his fellow man, as well as an observer of their innermost struggles at the moment when they are at their most vulnerable, in the house of God. His work is in no way judgemental, as he rejects the role of the judge; it is merely a recognition of diversity in all its forms and colours. His work is about understanding, acceptance, and tolerance and foremost, it is about the acknowledgement of seen and unseen realities.
Saddek is not a sculptor in any traditional sense, as he has had no formal training, does not work with clay or with moulds, his work is not produced in a foundry and does not come in editions. He works with his hands, and by himself. His primary material is metal, in various shapes and forms. He equates metal, with strength, and his patience and ability to break down its intransigence and to manipulate it to his will, is what gives him his sense of empowerment and achievement.
Wasil received his formal education in Environmental Studies and Agricultural Sciences from King Abdulaziz University. He is a member of a number of arts societies. Namely, the Contemporary Artistâs Home, The Association of Culture and the Arts and the Saudi Society of Fine Arts. He currently holds the position of Director of the Arts and Culture Department in Mecca.
He has exhibited extensively nationally and has participated in a number of international events and art fairs; Edge of Arabia, Istanbul (2010); OFID, Vienna (2011), Shanghai Expo at the Duolon Museum of Modern Art (2010); Art Dubai (2009, 2010, 2011); MENASA Art Fair, Beirut (2011); Marrakech Art Fair (2011) and the International Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal ( 2008, 2009). In 2012, he launched is first solo exhibition at Athr Gallery âAnd They Will Not Cease to DifferâŚâ and participated in âMade in Makkahâ, a group show of artists from Mecca at Artspace London. He has been selected for Dar Al- Maâmunâs 2013 residency in Morocco.
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