Artist Profile – August 2019

(Elle) #1

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not making work for that minority who are going to resent it no
matter what it is, but rather talking to that persuadable majority.
Using access points that are aesthetic, historical, philosophical,
conceptual, so that there are a lot of ways for people to be drawn
into the work.

And what is the ideal outcome for your work?
I go to schools a lot, and one of my markers of a successful work
is seeing how young people engage with it. Even though they
aren’t necessarily the ones who are going to consume the work
commercially in the end, they are who I am thinking of when I
make it. And more specifically, I’m thinking about me when I was
their age and what would have helped me understand the world
that I lived in and what would have helped me question some

05 You see monsters, 2014, Type C print, 155 x 110 cm
06 You can call me troublesome, 2018, manual embroidery (made with the assistance of DGTMB studios),
150 x 120 cm
07 TZHFSHFQQRJINKܪHZQY, 2018, manual embroidery (made with the assistance of DGTMB studios),
150 x 120 cm
Courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery, Singapore

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of the parameters that have been set for me by other people. A
successful work is one that I can show children, which they can
engage with on a level that isn’t just superficial. I’m always leaving
clues in there for a conversation that they can start and continue
in their own lives.

abdulabdullah.com
@abdul_abdullah
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