Death Cult, 1/5 from The Faceless Series, 2006

I have known Nader Sadek for the past 3 years. Over this time, we have had numerous conversations on a range of ostensibly problematic and sensitive subjects, including, Death Metal music, the position of women in Islam, identity politics, consumerism, economic imperialism, and prejudice. Sadek is unafraid to position problems of acceptance at the fore. However this daring iconoclasm is nuanced by an activism, which is ultimately humanistic, seeking confrontations to produce dialogue and discussion. A burkha-clad woman or a masked Death Metal musician occupy the same place of fear and prejudice in our society. In calling attention to these peripheral groups, he invites (and provokes) us to address our own limitations.

Reproduction taken from The Paradox Complex

Sadek's activism on a socio-political level isn't his only artistic motivation. He is equally drawn to universal themes of love, death, and immortality. What ties this subject matter together is his constant questioning of accepted parameters of cultural production and consumption.

In seeking to investigate and complicate the underlying structures that give way to human relationships, mechanization, warfare, and cultural stereotyping, Sadek's drawings, installations, videos and sculpture, tap into the aesthetics of ugliness, eliciting our discomfort. As we continue to move towards greater fundamentalism and political conservatism.- Sandhini Poddar, Guggenheim (Asia Dept.)

Cloning, taken from The Paradox Complex