Fertile Crescent, 2025
Oil on linen, ceramic, war issue memorabilia, steel
Painting: 90 × 150 cm | Sculptures: 140 × 18 × 16 cm

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraq National Museum was looted. Upwards of 15,000 artefacts were stolen and destroyed after the US army failed to protect the institution. Iconic pieces such as the Warka Vase, along with statues, tablets and seals were lost and damaged.

During the looting, the Tell Asmar figures watching the distressing raid unfold miraculously remained untouched. In this installation, Al-Khafaji displays a copy of a female idol from the Tell Asmar hoard, displayed as a fractured artefact, as much of the ancient collection around her had become.

Opposite stands a British war-issued helmet, projecting the artist's personal comprehensions of her locational home invading her ancestral one. This contrast frames the persistent struggles surrounding national identity faced by the Iraqi people living in the United Kingdom, both during the invasion and now.

The visual parallels between the objects strengthen the contexts provided by the painting, creating triadic narratives. Through museum-like displays, the work encourages observations of the objects as symbols of the past, despite the continued struggles for Iraqis. It highlights that invading nations have since moved on, while Iraqis continue to face the consequences of the invasion.

‘Fertile Crescent’ explores identity and displacement, curating the losses and complexities endured by those most directly affected by the 2003 Iraqi invasion.