 Hi, I'm Lida Abdul. I was born in Afghanistan and At the moment, my practice takes place in Afghanistan mainly I will sort of talk you through my work and show you some earlier work from the 90s that that I feel that fits the topic of this show and my relationship to Gender and the issues that I've been sort of grappling with as an Afghan artist and as you know Afghanistan Sort of is a place that in one sense It's become a metaphor for not only For war for 25 35 years of war now But it's also has become a metaphor for a struggle that Afghan women are going through on a daily daily basis So I will go ahead and show you some of my earlier work, especially this one which I feel abstractly deals with these issues of feminizing the the textual space I've done a series of work with with this with the idea of the veil Few that I'm not able to show today They're called unveiled and various different objects are coming from my mouth like honey and so on and they're called global porn and You know this question of veil has been a subject for a lot of artists from the region and And it's also, you know as something that it always comes up and I find it's sort of problematic because I feel that it's sort of Something that sort of hold on to both from the Western Perspective side and from the wet from the Eastern as a means of as a symbol of freedom and Liberation So I want to talk a little bit actually about the piece that's here in In the museum is called the White House and it's a it's a large building that was bombed a few years back and it is It's it's a particular building that is close to the presidential palace in Afghanistan So it was formerly part of the I was used for It was part of a government agency and it's a beautiful House with sort of Greek Roman Architecture and this building was is sort of shuttered into pieces and there are a few pillars that are still standing and I decided to I was representing Afghanistan the Venice Biennale in 2005 and and It was a sort of a you know something that I was struggling for quite a long time how do you represent Afghanistan in a way and and that was the piece for me the That I came up with where took two or three days to You know paint this whole area white even though rub the little tiny sort of stone that's left of the building and It's turned to this gigantic sculpture and it's and it's completely transformed and at one point this man comes across my painting stroke and even he is painted his back is painted white and And at the end these sort of these animals take over the space so for me this was sort of a symbol of You know what Afghanistan somehow has become it was a met it's a metaphor for Afghanistan, but the idea of of Me painting these ruins white was sort of very important Just for me because as an as a as an artist as a woman Not only I'm not veiled in that piece because I didn't want it to be about that But also in a sense I have I Painted even these man that comes across that you know this this this performance And for this particular show, I don't think the pieces in It's not meant It's not installed the way I want it to be installed. It's an installation piece It's supposed to be sort of shown by itself in a loop a continuous loop, but Anyhow And the kind of work that I'm doing now is it's slightly different and I'm constantly in Afghanistan and I'm constantly making work there and it's it's a It's a difficult place to make work and The issues of gender obviously comes on on a daily basis on constant basis There's a lot of a sort of resistance That I feel on you know every day when I make work and every day that I'm on the street and and having to just Go through the bureaucracy to get permissions It's difficult as an Afghan woman to do that and oftentimes, you know when I am shooting like the most my recent piece that Was shot for the Biennale of Moscow. I Was, you know personally threatened Not to make work So those are some of the things that you deal with as a woman in Afghanistan But the question is to you know for me that's important is that That the resistance does not stop, you know by the fact that I'm there And continuously making work. I feel that that's somehow a kind of change is taking place and So I will show you some work. It's called military body And it's in the back So this is a continuous installation as a continuous loop so it would be again an installation setting I Will take you to this Series of work that I did in Kabul this was done in 2002 before the White House and This particular piece what I what I've I started a project for myself where I started painting military equipment like tanks and helicopters and any any Any debris that was left over That's sort of begun It's you know, like I said in 2002 and it's a sort of a continuous project until now where One of my recent pieces. I'm taking a huge Military plane that's shot down was which has over 3,000 bullets That's gone through it and it will be an instance a piece of performance with with the kids in Kabul So it's so these are ongoing projects Not coming up on the screen, but it's not sure what happened. No We'll try something else because it's not coming up on my laptop Okay, my DVD is not working Well, anyways, I can fully I can sort of describe the the piece Where I'm going through different cities streets in Kabul and finding these military equipment There's a there's a particular car, which I've picked. It's it's it says disarm on it and it's painted in the green military color and It's basically there's a skeleton of it left and there's nothing else and I sort of continued continuously paint this particular car and it goes on to tanks and And helicopters and things like that so they somehow become visible for me and They become they sort of take a sculptural quality That I feel You know, I feel like they they need to be used, you know, they're sort of taking over space and their ice wars So my projects now, I'm working quite a bit with kids like I mentioned kids from the kids from the street and And with ruins because Oftentimes when I do have projects that deal with women that I need actresses It just becomes impossible task. I can't get them to sort of participate Because of the personal problems that they might have in the future So I therefore I work oftentimes from people on the street men and children so Hopefully that will change in the future where you know, there will be much more sort of Freedom in terms of media It's happening, but it's a little slow And if you have any questions, I will be around in the museum. Thank you