phd
 

PhD Thesis Title:  Invasion, NGOisation, Extraction: Creative Myth-Making & Diasporic Processes of Becoming Among Afghan Contemporary Artists (working title)

PhD Supervisor: Julie Billaud & Till Mostowlansky

The research proposes an ethnographic exploration of the relationship between the Global War on Terror (GWoT), international development initiatives, and the ‘invention’ of contemporary art in Afghanistan between 2001-2021. Indeed, the ‘myth’ tells us that the emergence of contemporary art in the country during this period was the result of a local, Afghan movement. However, although it may have subsequently been given locally-ascribed meaning and momentum, what became dubbed ‘Afghan’ contemporary art developed within, indeed was a direct result of, invasion, occupation, and foreign-funded development initiatives. As part of the EuroAmerican experiment in nation-building, this research will examine how the experiment led to the NGOisation of contemporary artistic practice, how Afghan artists participated in and navigated through that experiment, how it ultimately contributed to the evacuation (‘extraction’) of many who did so after the Taliban retook control of the country in mid-August 2021, and how the ‘myth’ is still being written in the creative practices of both a pre- and post-extraction diaspora. As such, the research seeks to further understand how displaced artists find a sense of belonging and continue to legitimize, or on the contrary challenge, the ‘myth’ of ‘Afghan’ contemporary art within their respective hostlands as they rebuild and redefine the concept of watan in their ongoing processes of becoming.
 

Profile

I've spent over 15 years working as a conceptual artist and in the fields of art and culture within the international development sector. My research and creative practice to date have utilised an experimental ethnographic approach, combining qualitative research, traditional storytelling, postmodern narrative strategies, and mixed-media artworks (often site-specific installations and participative performances) to approach themes such as belonging, conflict, neo-orientalism, artifactual history, the burden of representation, neo-colonialism, and migration; intentionally blurring and merging the lines between fact and fiction, documentation and imagination.

My artwork has been exhibited internationally including the LindenMuseum-Stuttgart, Imperial War Museum-London and Manchester, Times Square, NYC, 3rd Dhaka Art Summit, 12th Havana Biennale, 3rd Asia Triennial Manchester, 1st Kochi/Muziris Biennale, and dOCUMENTA (13). In 2012, I was selected as a TED Fellow for the subversively critical nature of my artistic practice while living in Kabul, Afghanistan.
 

Areas of expertise
 

• Afghanistan
• Contemporary Art
• Imperialism
• Int’l Development
• War on Terror
• Politics of Representation
• Neo-orientalism
• Diasporas
   

Research Interests
 

• Afghanistan
• Contemporary Art
• Neo-colonialism
• Int'l Development
• War on Terror
• Politics of Representation
• Neo-orientalism
• Diasporas

Publications and Works
 

• 2025 The Diaspora Dialogues, Artistic Research project, France & Germany
• 2024 Amidst Wind & Sky, Participative Performance project, LindenMuseum, Stuttgart, Germany
• 2023 The Exhibition; Edited Volume: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Art in Global Asia. Routledge.
• 2016 The Art of Conflict Chic: Imagined Geographies & the Search for a Post-Orientalist Identity; Conflict & Compassion: A Paradox of Difference in Contemporary Asian Art. HOME Publishers.
• 2010 Home and What Can One Say About Living in Kabul?; Edited Volume: One Story, Thirty Stories: An Anthology of Contemporary Afghan-American Literature. University of Arkansas Press.
• 2007 Humanitarians with Guns: Globalized Rights, Cultural Space, & Militarized Aid in Afghanistan; Edited Volume: Challenges and Paths to Global Justice. Palgrave McMillan.