From issue: #27 Emerging Talent
Sadiq Al-Harasi, What Do Fathers Leave Behind?
Sadiq Al-Harasi’s work is shaped by absence. In What Do Fathers Leave Behind?, he traces the memory of his father, piecing together a presence that was felt deeply but remained just out of reach. He turns to family photographs, fragments of memory and the landscapes of childhood to rebuild a connection that was interrupted too soon. The family album holds no more than fifty images, and only a few include his father. What remains is a sense of longing that finds expression in nature, in his mother’s stories, and in the mirror, where his own face has come to resemble the one he searched for.
The project unfolds as a poetic excavation of memory and belonging. Returning to his father’s village, which he left at the age of two, Al-Harasi reimagines the past through images that reflect the fragile yet powerful link between what we inherit and what we choose to remember. His work sits between presence and absence, using visual storytelling to explore how identity can be rooted in silence, shaped by grief, and reshaped through creative transformation.
Born in Yemen, Al-Harasi is a cultural practitioner and visual artist with a background in architecture. He works across collage, photography, cyanotype and embroidery, often focusing on memory, loss and the construction of personal and collective histories. His work has been exhibited both locally and internationally, including in virtual exhibitions that broaden access to his practice.
