Lida Abdul

White House is a short film rich with political content. It is one of Abdul's better-known works, which was shown at the Venice Biennale.[8] The film depicts the rubble of a classical building in a landscape set outside of Kabul.[9][10] The artist films herself dressed in black, painting the rubble white.[10] A man enters the scene, and Abdul paints his back in a similar fashion. Finally, the short, five-minute film ends with a herd of goats exploring the ruins.[10] The film is rhythmic, and a symbol of hope and progress,[3] as well as an act of political resistance to various injustices, such as the United States' profitable occupation of Afghanistan, the whitewashing of history,[9] and Afghan people's psychological injury from living in a war-torn region.[9]

Dome holds an optimistic tone contrasted with symbols of distress. It depicts a boy spinning joyfully in a crumbling mosque while an American helicopter passes overhead.[9] The spinning and dizziness are meant to represent displacement due to war, the irrationality of war acts and the strength of human hope[3]›[11]

Trees is a video documentary where young men discuss their reason for cutting down a tree, one that is still alive and bearing fruits. They explain their reasoning for cutting it down is because it was the site of many hangings and had to be destroyed. In the end the men cut the tree down and carried it off.[11]

Clapping with stones is a video documentary, which contains a group of men in black Shalwar Kameez performing a prayer like ritual in front of the rock of Bamiyan. The Bamiyan contains traces of ancient Buddha's, which was destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban.[11]

Brick Sellers of Kabul is a photograph of young children in Kabul, each of them breaking a brick that they hand to a man with a shock of unruly hair and a painted expression. They are very serious and there is a sense of adulthood in the lives of each of these children. Abdul said, "Kabul is full of kids who run in the streets, but if you knew their lives you would wonder how it is possible for them to keep going... when their laughter disappears."

National Museum of Afghanistan (Kabul, Afghanistan 2007)

Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (Indianapolis, USA 2008)

OK Center for Contemporary Art (Linz, Austria 2008)

Krannert Art Museum (Champaign, Illinois, US 2010)

Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (Málaga, Spain 2013)

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal, 2013)

Foreman Art Gallery, Bishops University (Quebec, Canada, 2013)

Giogrio Persano Gallery (Turin, Italy, 2013)

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Paris, France, 2014)

CAP Center (Lyon, France, 2015)

Global Feminisms (Brooklyn Museum, NYC, USA 2007)

History of Violence (Haifa Museum of Art, Israel 2009)

Beyond Memory (Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel 2011)

Transition Project (Yapi Kredi Kültür Merkezi, Istanbul, Turkey 2013)

Venice Biennale (2005 and 2015)

Moscow Biennial (2007)

Documenta (Kassel, Germany 2012)

Her works are permeated with; cultural identity, migration, psychological damage, process of destruction & displacement, and include notions of exile and homeland.[13] Though a centrally governed country, is not unified in culture, national identity or language, though the lingua franca is Dari.[14][6] Few people living in Afghanistan would describe themselves as "Afghan", but rather of a specific tribe living in the region and surrounding areas. Major groups include Pushtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Baluch, each distinct and without strong feelings of national borders or identity,[6] who spill into neighboring countries without regard for borders.[14]

Some attributes unite most "Afghans", however, with a 90% majority Sunni Muslim population. One of Abdul's goals in her films is to educate a western audience about the nature of these cultures, and how they may diverge from the assumptions that people make about Afghanistan and Afghan people due to stereotypes they may encounter in the popular media.[4][15] She recognizes the tendency of western media to paint a stereotypical image of Afghanistan, and through her art, she hopes to humanize people who are often demonized.[4] One such stereotype is an image of a nation overtaken by war and stripped entirely of culture, however, even in light of devastation, Afghan people still had the desire to create art.[15] With the works of Lida Abdul and other artists in the forefront, a western audience is given an alternative way to see Afghanistan removed from the depictions of terror and devastated cities.[15]

Afghanistan is more regional than central in orientation and culture, in part because of the lack of transportation throughout the country to connect major points of interest.[6] However, a road system connecting the three major cities was built with Soviet aid.[6]