Islamic Art
The Long Arm of Colonialism
Contemporary artists highlighting refugees and the hypocrisy of the West through their art
In 2011 the Taliban detonated a truck bomb outside of artist Khadim Ali’s family home in Quetta, near the Afghani border, killing fourteen and badly injuring both his parents. Part of the persecuted Hazara ethnic group, Ali is now based in Sydney after receiving a distinguished person visa. Much of his work, however, focuses on those less fortunate than himself, such as The Arrivals. Produced on a handwoven rug with hand embroidery, The Arrivals is part of a greater series that are mostly works on paper in gouache and gold leaf. This work, however, is made on the handwoven rug of a companion and colleague of his, with hand-embroidery of a sinking boat and his signature motif of demons drowning and trying to save each other.
Whilst in his earlier works his common motifs of the demon represented the darker side of humanity, they have more recently begun to represent the Hazara people themselves. The Hazara have long faced persecution, most recently under the Sunni Pashtun rule in the 20th Century due to their regarding the Hazara people as dirty and degenerate. Due to this persecution, Ali’s grandfather permanently fled Afghanistan in the 1960s, carrying with him only two books…
