Abdul Abdullah is an artist on the periphery — an 'outsider among outsiders' — whose works explore themes of marginalisation and often find an audience in 'the margins'. His practice is primarily concerned with the experience of the ‘other’ and the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience.

Abdul Abdullah explores themes of belonging and alienation in the context of a Muslim-Australian identity, using his own background as a touch point.

Australian artist Abdul Abdullah's work riffs on themes like belonging, alienation and racism. His paintings of masked, foreign-looking figures are exploring the dynamics of fear and prejudice in contemporary Australia, with a focus on Muslim communities.

Abdullah, whose unapologetically confrontational works have provoked ad hominem criticism of his faith and ethnicity in the past, ironically has cultural ties to this country which are just as old, if not older, than those who attack him. As a self-described ‘outsider amongst outsiders’ with a post-9/11 mindset, his practice is primarily concerned with the experience of the ‘other’ and the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience.

Abdul Abdullah’s multi-disciplinary practice is motivated by a longstanding concern on the complex feelings of displacement and alienation associated with histories of diaspora and migration. Providing a voice to these rarely told topics, he creates carefully crafted political commentaries that speak of the ‘Other’ and the experiences of marginalised communities. While the fraught dynamic of Muslim experiences have provided the initial framework, Abdullah has consciously expanded his practice to include a broader sense of marginalisation, and the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience.

Abdul Abdullah is a seventh-generation Australian Muslim whose work addresses the politicisation of Muslim identity within mainstream Australian culture. His practice explores how Muslim identity is represented, often through images that speak to fear, suspicion and the experience of being seen as ‘the Other’ within Australian society.

Photographer and painter Abdul Abdullah is renowned for creating portraits of marginalised figures. Abdullah's practice draws on his own personal journey, Muslim identity and experiences of racism and exclusion in Australia, questioning how people are represented and perceived. Works such as "Someone else's king and someone else's country" interrogate national identity, belonging and who is considered an insider or outsider in contemporary Australia.

Abdul Abdullah is an artist from Perth whose practice explores the identity and experience of marginalised members of the Australian community. Domestically I feel a move towards jingoism has given rise to events like the Cronulla riots, the Reclaim Australia movement and a general anti-Islam sentiment. These divisive attitudes and actions act as obstacles to any real sense of belonging or commonality, leaving segments of the community marginalised and disaffected.

Today, an award-winning artist, Abdul recalls the backlash and racism his community encountered in the wake of 9/11, and how it has shaped his identity and his artworks since.[4] The ABC Religion and Ethics Report interview frames his practice as a response to growing up as a Muslim in Australia after 9/11, focusing on racism, marginalisation and questions of belonging.[4]

It has been my experience growing up here that despite my family’s 200-year history on the continent, I am continuously put into a position where I have to justify my colour, my name and my religion. While I was born here and identify myself as an Australian, I have been engaged by a portion of the community that denies my right to do so. The idea that I should somehow ‘go home’ is confusing, and in this body of work I wanted to deconstruct the idea of home and what that means in the contemporary multicultural Australian context.

*We are blood and bone* and *We are sweat and tears* pair two works from Abdul Abdullah’s ten-part photographic series *Siege* (2014), exploring negative perceptions of Muslims as portrayed by the media. Abdullah uses his own body and that of a female counterpart wearing a prosthetic ape mask… to make a direct link to the dehumanising nature of portraying the ‘other’ as something monstrous and uncivilised… Abdullah uses the mask to reveal the body of the ‘other’ as a living costume that is still besieged by the advancement of empire.

He sees himself as an "outsider amongst outsiders," both Muslim and Malay. With art, he engages with and depicts the experience of "the Other" in society. He has worked with various marginalized minority groups and is interested in how young Australian Muslims experience multiculturalism in Australia. Abdul does not attempt to address the specifics of the religion. Instead, he examines the experience of displacement and alienation that come with migration (to countries where Muslims are in the minority).

Abdul Abdullah is an artist originally from Perth whose practice explores the identity and experience of marginalised members of the Australian community. His works have been described as confronting, and often deal with themes of race, religion and the experience of being on the margins of society.

On the Biennale of Sydney’s "Rememory" theme, Abdul Abdullah writes that the exhibition explores the historical effects and ongoing ramifications of colonization, and the politicization of identity for the benefit of the powerful. He states: "I have often spoken about the projection of criminality/monstrosity on benign bodies to justify the unjust seizure of land, bodies, labour and resources, and for me the resistance to this stratagem is at the heart of probably all the work I saw." He connects memory, identity, belonging and the targeting of people of colour because of assumed ethnic and religious identities, echoing the focus on marginalised narratives and communities in his own work.

Abdul Abdullah confronts Australia’s collective memory of the 2005 Cronulla riots after two decades. Roughly 5000 Australians – predominantly white – assembled at Cronulla in Sydney’s south to begin a day-long assault on anyone of Middle Eastern or non-white appearance. Using the theatrical contrivance of 15th-century Renaissance painting to depict actual documented scenes, these new works both memorialise and reanimate the violence, exposing the racialised nature of the attacks and how ideas of national identity and ‘us versus them’ were mobilised.

Identifying as a Muslim and having both Malay/Indonesian and convict/settler Australian heritage, Abdullah occupies a precarious space in the political discourse that puts him at odds with popular definitions. As a self-described ‘outsider amongst outsiders’, his practice is primarily concerned with the experience of the ‘other’ and the disjuncture between perception/projection of identity and the reality of lived experience. His works confront xenophobia and racial prejudices, challenging stereotypes and misconceptions about Muslims and other marginalised groups in Australia.

The work plays on motivational phrases that can be read as both encouragement and an invitation to fight, playing with the potentialities and ambiguities of language in the context of social and political struggle.[8] In the reposted caption from AMES YAVUZ, Abdullah’s piece is framed as engaging with tensions and conflict experienced by marginalised communities, reinforcing his broader interest in the psychology of being positioned as "other".[8]