Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai: Qissah-e Kabul

Chatterjee & Lal announces Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Qissah-e Kabul.

The paintings are inspired by the architecture, gardens, poetry, and court paintings that flourished in the Mughal court at Kabul; they are representative of the era’s cosmopolitanism, with the coming together of multiple aesthetic influences.

The journey of these works tell a story of their own.

The works in this series were all painted in 2021 when the artist was living in Afghanistan with her husband and his family. The exhibition comprises those works that she was able to rescue while fleeing Kabul after the Taliban’s siege of the capital. Ahmadzai managed to find safe passage out of the country through an Indian emergency evacuation mission. Despite her escape requiring her to pack up in a hurry, she was able to fold these fabric works and fit them into a small rucksack.

Whilst leaving Kabul, the artist felt compelled to destroy over a hundred figurative artworks, which, if found on her person by the Taliban, would have put her in extreme danger. As the artist says, “The remaining works in this exhibition are relics, for they are all that remain of a better past. These relics are my companions, for they have travelled the same journey that I have. These companions are witnesses, for they are those who have seen exactly what I have seen.”