Forgotten Prayers Of The Nameless And Unidentified, 2024

Materiality and sensibility as well as smell and spaces also play an important role in the work of Abul Hisham (India, 1987). His work deals with the tension between the inner mental space of an individual and the power structures and hierarchy in political and religious systems. In his work, he draws on age-old traditions in India as well as his own history. By painting the material, he literally digs his way into his own memory and explores how mental processes are expressed in the body. The strong physicality draws the viewer into his own inner world. Especially for Foreign Land, Hisham created a new installation. Painted in earth tones on vertical panels are representations of people moving in a group like pilgrims. Black notches run across the representations, referring to the physical and emotional scars of people on the run. The panels are literally bordered with by a mud-like substance. In the portrait of a person and the abstracted house hanging next to the panels, the longing for a home is palpable.