Abdul Abdullah Combating Prejudice with Art

On his dad's side, Abdul Abdullah's family goes back six generations of pure, "true blue" Australian. His mom, however, is a Malaysian Muslim. In a recent talk at TEDx Australia, the photographer and painter explained the reality that comes with his heritage in the not-so-great-for-Muslims political environment in his home country.

The Bride. Abdul Abdullah 2015

"I've never really been allowed to feel like an Aussie," he says. "I'm no flag-waving cricket fan. No tinney-smashing, thong and singlet-wearing larrikin. There's nothing 'home and away' about me. Current affairs doesn't talk about my current affairs."

The Wedding, Abdul Abdullah, 2015

This is something of an understatement. This summer, the xenophobic, right-wing "Reclaim Australia" movement held rallies in all of Australia's major cities, its 30,000+ member Facebook group cultivating an onslaught of anti-refugee op-eds and political cartoons. But while anti-Islam sentiments seem to be coming to a head in recent headlines, they're something Abdullah has dealt with his entire life.

"I was 14 when the planes hit the towers and Muslims almost overnight became perceived as an existential threat," he tells The Creators Project. "I grew up being told that I was one of the bad guys, and that I wasn’t really welcome in the country I was born in."

The Lies We Tell Ourselves to Help Us Sleep, Abdul Abdullah, 2015

With no other recourse, Abdullah expresses his frustration, pain, and incredulity through art. He captures his impression of hate-filled nationalists and essentialized versions of their victims through elaborate portraits, frequently dressing and photographing himself to capture the right attitude. His props range from the Australian flag, to traditional Malaysian wedding garb, to a monkey mask that was used as a makeup tester in Tim Burton’s 2001 Planet of the Apes. Oh, and sometimes he uses an actual monkey named Aki.

Arranging these elaborate scenes, Abdullah creates highly subjective explorations of his own opinions, in the hopes of eliciting an equal or opposite reaction. "I'm revealing my biases with the hope of engaging and examining yours," he explains. Last week, Abdullah opened a new show at Brooklyn's CHASM Gallery, so we spoke to him about how how he became an activist artist, he met his monkey, and what it was like growing up as an Australian Muslim.