A Noteworthy Conversation with Abdul Abdullah
Courtesy of artist
Abdul Abdullah is an Australian multi-disciplined artist based in Australia. Abdullah works in painting, photography, video, installation, and performance art.
He sees himself as an "outsider amongst outsiders," both Muslim and Malay. With art, he engages with and depicts the experience of "the Other" in society. He has worked with various marginalized minority groups and is interested in how young Australian Muslims experience multiculturalism in Australia. Abdul does not attempt to address the specifics of the religion. Instead, he examines the experience of displacement and alienation that come with migration (to countries where Muslims are in the minority).
Abdul's art has been exhibited widely internationally in galleries, museums, and various art spaces, such as the Yavuz Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art NSW, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Thailand, Bega Valley Regional Gallery NSW, and elsewhere.
His art is in several collections, including Collections: HOTA MAIIAM, Thailand. The National Gallery of Australia, ACT. The Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA, The Gallery of Modern Art, QLD, The Museum of Contemporary Art, NSW, Artbank, AUS, Murdoch University, WA, Islamic Museum of Australia, VIC, Lawrence Wilson Gallery, The University of Western, Australia, WA, The Bendigo Art Gallery, VIC, Campbelltown Arts Centre. NSW, The City of Sydney, NSW, The Town of Victoria Park, WA. He featured in many publications, including Art Collector, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The University of Chicago Press, Art Monthly, and many more.
I had the pleasure of asking Abdul about how art has made him grow as a person, what drives his creative process, what societal and political issues he has not yet addressed in his art but wants to, and so much more.
His most recent shows have been 'Interspecies' at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Sydney Contemporary, Asia Now in Paris, and an upcoming exhibit at the West Bund Art and Design in Shanghai in November.
UZOMAH: What is the purpose of art in society to you?
ABDUL: I think art has many purposes. For my own practice, I see it as fulfilling a similar role to journalism without being restricted by any pretense of objectivity. I use art to explore anything I’m curious about without being concerned about being too reactionary or emotional. Sometimes it feels like I’m taking strange little ideas and positions for a walk and then sharing my discoveries with my outcomes. It’s my hope that art has a positive purpose in society and encourages close examination of how we live our lives.
U: What drives your creative process?
A: I see my work as offerings to an ongoing critical discourse, and one thing that I think about is who my work is in service of. I don’t necessarily think about the usual art gallery patrons when I’m developing ideas, but rather the 12 and 13-year-old versions of me in the outer suburbs on the urban fringes, who don’t see their stories reflected in the mainstream. Without claiming anybody else’s story, it is my hope that there is enough overlap of shared experience that they can see themselves reflected in my work and, in that sense of discovery, take some ownership of the idea and spaces in which these works are exhibited.
Quietly optimistic 2021 oil on linen 240cm x 180cm
U: When did you decide to pursue art as a career?
A: I was fortunate that my two older brothers studied art before I did, so when I changed from a journalism degree over to the art department, I was determined to pursue art as a professional career. Although journalism is a shifting vocation, I saw it as a more certain career path, so in my decision to shift areas of study, I took careful consideration of what I needed to do to turn it into a career. I believe this mindset was a bit different from most of my Art School peers, and I set about having exhibitions and working outside of the university system as soon as I started studying.
Custodians 2020 oil on linen 72 x 436 inches
U: What is something people would not know about you from just looking at your art?
A: Although I over-compensate with a confident public persona, I am, in fact, a very shy and introverted person.
Mutual assurances 2017 120 x 278cm
U: How has art helped you grow as a person?
A: Art has given me a platform and visual language to articulate the conditions and contexts I have grown up with. I was a very angry and frustrated teenager and young man, and art has given me the space and time to interrogate the contributing factors. Art has also given me a voice to work out my frustrations and challenge what I believe are long-held but destructive societal conditions.
U: There has not been as much talk about boarding schools in Australia that separated indigenous youth from their families. How can that change, and there be some reparations for the loss so many suffered? How can art be used to bring awareness and be used as a healing process?
A: My mentor Richard Bell is an amazing international artist and Aboriginal man. He has often said there can be no reconciliation without conciliation. Australia as a nation has to acknowledge its violent history and the ongoing violence it distributes to its first peoples. And the government should open its wallet. And they should give the land back. And pay the rent they owe. I think art made by Aboriginal artists in Australia is our only point of difference and uniqueness in international terms, and it should be celebrated and at the forefront of how we culturally present to the world.
Legacy Assets 2022 oil on linen 200cm x 1000cm
U: What are some societal and political issues you have yet to address in your art but want to?
A: As I work more and more internationally, my visual language has become less Australian-specific. I have found my research these days is less about specific political issues and more about the human conditions that motivate them. I am still very interested in the experience of the ‘other’, but that definition has broadened. In the broadest terms, I am interested in the difference and tension between the reality and actions of a person or community’s lived experience and how they are perceived from the outside. I am also still interested in exploring the projection of criminality and monstrosity on benign bodies to justify the otherwise unjust seizure and possession of land, labour, resources, and bodies.
Reconciliation (of self) 2015 Digital print 100cm x 100cm
U: What exhibit or art have you created that has impacted you most and is an example of your artistic statement?
A: Different projects I have helmed have had different types of impacts, but perhaps my most successful works were my photographic series 'Coming to terms,' which started in 2015 and was expanded in 2017. In this series, I used balaclavas, masks, and broadly understood cultural rituals to explore the projection of criminality on innocent bodies. The genesis for the series was an Op-Ed that I read that justified a drone strike that killed a group of children playing soccer on the Pakistan-Afghan border by saying they were likely to grow up to be terrorists anyway. This explicit projection of criminality on absolutely innocent bodies horrified me. I did not want to feature children or violence in the work, so I chose a wedding as an almost universally understood cultural ritual. I subverted this imagery with balaclavas, carefully constructed compositional elements, and lighting borrowed from horror, science fiction, and thriller films.
For more information about Abdul’s artwork, please visit his site, and follow him on Instagram.
