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Rustam |
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Green Cardamom, London, 15th November 2007 to 15th December 2007 |
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Khadim Ali’s recent work explores the practice of storytelling, investigating the relationships between myth and memory. The body of work in this exhibition references the epic poem the Shahnameh (The Persian Book of Kings). Having grown up with the popular legend of Rustam and Sohrab, Khadim was taken aback when he came across a young boy in Bamiyan, named Rustam who was unaware of his namesake’s mythic status. The boy’s only association with his name was that of Rustam-e-Parzand, (winged Rustum) the name used by the Taliban to enforce an image of omnipresent vigilance. Khadim uses these appropriations of mythologies and legends to explore how cultural icons are commandeered and subverted to serve multiple ends.
Related to the body of works in this exhibition, is Khadim’s Absent Kitchen series where the artist uses a workshop setting to tell children stories he has heard from their contemporaries in Afghanistan. The images drawn by the children, in answer to his request for a visual response, are brought together in the artist’s Absent Kitchen series, creating multiple narratives and a dialogue between the children across different locations. Khadim has run these workshops in his hometown of Bamiyan, in Brisbane as part of the 2006 Asia-Pacific Triennial and with the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan. Khadim will develop the next stage of his Absent Kitchen series by working with children from London. The works from this encounter will be developed in the gallery space and exhibited in December.
Rustam marks Green Cardamom’s inaugural exhibition in its new gallery space. |
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