Khadim Ali's intricate works have garnered wide international acclaim, cementing him as an important and prominent Australian artist. Ali first became known for his rich paintings steeped in the traditions of miniature painting as a result of the training he acquired studying at the Lahore National School of Arts. The school is known to have revived and reinvigorated the Persian miniature painting tradition with a contemporary and experimental edge, producing a large contingent of Pakistan's most celebrated contemporary artists today and Ali is often profiled as part of this influential group. His works have drawn on Afghan mythology, literature and poetry, to explore his personal experiences as well as contemporary events, such as the persecution of the Hazara people to which he belongs, the actions and rhetoric of the Taliban, and the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan. Ali first exhibited in Australia at 'The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' in 2006 while residing in his hometown of Quetta, and in 2010 moved to Sydney. Living in Australia while also creating work at a studio in Afghanistan has provided Ali with a unique perspective to approach his subjects, and his works have diversified into significantly larger paintings as well as figurative woven works created with rug-makers in Kabul.

'The Arrivals' is a new body of work and ongoing series that premiered at Milani Gallery in November 2016. The central theme takes its departure from the refugee experience as the result of war, and the media portrayal and various political debates these realities ignite. Specifically addressed in the series is the context of refugees in Australia, with references such as the gum leaves and carbon printing appropriated from the Australian passport, and the appearance of overloaded ships — signalling an issue which has been at the centre of the Australian political debate for several years. However with the highly broadcast global refugee crisis and the surge in asylum seekers fleeing Syria, this issue has come to the forefront of the international consciousness, sparking widespread political debate over migration and asylum seeker policy, border protection, and the general treatment of refugees throughout the world. While Ali incorporates Australian motifs, he also touches on this global phenomenon, referencing recent events such as the temporary refugee camps set up on an enormous scale over the past year, and the evictions and subsequent torching of the Calais Jungle encampment in France in March 2016. Ali gives the following statement to accompany the series:

The Arrival of Demons: War produces innumerable wounds, leaving scars of destruction that are carried through generations. It destroys and deconstructs societies and disrupts the sphere of time. In its displacement by war, the human body becomes the site of trauma and loss. It is exposed to harsh environments and a torrid political atmosphere. This displaced body has a name: refugee.

The effects of the refugee's fragmented journey of displacement differ from person to person. But in almost every case the inner spirit is numbed, forcing memories to be forgotten. The smell of home, the scent of love, the delicacy of identity and the fluency of language are all erased by the trauma of loss.

In our time, political circumstance and misrepresentation has painted these displaced souls as being beyond humanity. Even though they are merely attempting to escape the catastrophe of war, they are portrayed as demons (that is as beings other than human) who threaten the social order. In doing this, our society represses the forlorn hope of human beings who have endured the very limits of survival, ignoring that they seek little more than peace. Yet what is at stake in how we treat them is not just their humanity, but ours.

The Arrival of Demons seeks to give vision to this theatre of the absurd.¹

The protagonists in the series are a distinct group of figures executed with the finely rendered precision Ali has perfected throughout his career. Their demonic features echo the mythology that dominated many of his earlier works. However here he gestures toward present day refugees, illustrated to indicate the way they are perceived and treated, as a mass of bodies denied their individual stories and backgrounds, and overlaid with a threatening and inhumane appearance. 

This body of work was created between Ali's studios in Kabul and Sydney. The Arrivals 3 was painted in Kabul and is one of the most richly decorated works in the series, where a group of figures gather in and around a tent. The motifs on the tent, rug and surrounding landscape recall motifs borrowed from a great history of South and Central Asian painting traditions, while the group carries out an exchange that could be viewed as a kind of community discussion or courtly exchange. For Ali, the camping scene references multiple transient communities. In 2015 he spoke with Afghan refugees who had stayed in the Calais Jungle and heard their stories of moving from tent to tent, while he recalls the many Afghans born in refugee camps around the border of Pakistan during the civil war, and the earlier history of Sultans, Mongols and Turks who passed through the country on their conquests south.² The image might equally evoke the vast tent encampments housing millions of people around the world today, in unfamiliar lands and in an indefinite yet temporary state. Flames rise throughout the image which may be a direct reference to the Calais Jungle, or the many war-torn sites today's asylum seekers have left, and the entire image sits under gum leaves as seen in Australian passports, suggesting the fickle debate Australia plays in the treatment of its refugees and asylum seekers, and the responsibilities and implications the nation's immigration and refugee policies hold. 

The Arrivals 12 is the twelfth work in the series, and the first work created following the initial exhibition at Milani Gallery. It depicts a semi-submerged vessel in a turbulent water, with a group of demonic figures in life vests grasping for pieces of the upturned boat or thrown into the water. Broken masts, tangled ropes and sails, and discarded life vests add to the drama of the image, while the silhouettes of more figures in a darkened opening into the hull reveals more of the community, perhaps in the safety of the commotion outside, or perhaps hiding from it. 

As the figures Ali has used throughout the series are somewhat ambiguous, so too is the origin and destination of the voyage that has fallen to misfortune, as the figures could be a group of explorers from another time and their ships appear barely accustomed to such a fierce ocean. Yet the image of figures scrambling from a shipwrecked vessel has become part of the Australian psyche over recent years, shockingly caught in the Christmas Island boat disaster that killed 50 asylum seekers in 2010, and a subject which has since dominated federal elections and elicited fierce local and international criticism. More recently the European refugee crisis has seen thousands of asylum seekers die attempting to cross the Mediterranean, tragically causing such a scene to be a common occurrence reported by the international media. 

'The Arrivals' is a powerful and striking series where Ali weighs in to one of the most critical issues that faces the world today. He conveys this from the perspective of an artist who himself belongs to a persecuted minority, who has crossed continents with a cultural knowledge and artistic skill now widely regarded, and who received the support of the Australian government to reside in Australia but through his painting expresses an empathy for so many still in pursuit of such a chance. 

Endnotes

1. Khadim Ali, Artist Statement in Khadim Ali: New Works [exhibition catalogue], Milani Gallery, 2016.
2. Khadim Ali, correspondence with author, 24 January 2017.