Kubra Khademi

  • Afghani artist Kubra Khademi uses her practice to explore her experiences as both a refugee and as a woman. Khademi spent her childhood and teenage years in Ghor, a province that has repeatedly suffered from targeted killings and bombings by the Taliban in the last twenty years. During her studies she began exploring public performance, a practice she continued upon her return to Kabul. Her work actively responded to the extreme patriarchal politics of the region, and in February 2015 she made the performance Armor turning her underwear into a protective shell to address the constant repression and harassment that women suffer. She fashioned a kind of armour that moulded her breasts and buttocks. She performed wearing it on a crowded street. The performance lasted only eight minutes, the reaction was so violent that she was forced to interrupt it. A number of death threats followed, forcing her to flee to France a few days after the performance. In both her performances and her gouaches, Kubra Khademi utilizes her body to affirm a shame-free femininity and to seek a new place for women in society, history and in public space.

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Kubra Khademi

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Afghani artist Kubra Khademi uses her practice to explore her experiences as both a refugee and as a woman. Khademi spent her childhood and teenage years in Ghor, a province that has repeatedly suffered from targeted killings and bombings by the Taliban in the last twenty years. During her studies she began exploring public performance, a practice she continued upon her return to Kabul. Her work actively responded to the extreme patriarchal politics of the region, and in February 2015 she made the performance Armor turning her underwear into a protective shell to address the constant repression and harassment that women suffer. She fashioned a kind of armour that moulded her breasts and buttocks. She performed wearing it on a crowded street. The performance lasted only eight minutes, the reaction was so violent that she was forced to interrupt it. A number of death threats followed, forcing her to flee to France a few days after the performance. In both her performances and her gouaches, Kubra Khademi utilizes her body to affirm a shame-free femininity and to seek a new place for women in society, history and in public space.