"I grew up in Pakistan as a refugee and trained in classical miniature painting at the National College of the Arts in Lahore and in mural painting and calligraphy in Tehran. This work is part of a series that is directly inspired by the Shahnameh (Book of Kings), a complex poem of 60,000 verses that was written at the court of the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (Afghanistan today), circa 1010 AD by Hakim Abu ‘I-Qasim Ferdowsi. I first encountered the Shahnameh when my grandfather read it to me when I was young. It was my first introduction to art history and has influenced my art and life ever since.

The Haunted Lotus series and this work in particular aims to depict the dynamics of the moral conflict and good-evil relationships inspired by the epic Shahnamah. The work depicts visually the state of confusion between the hero and rogue (villain). It further looks into the history of demonization of ethnic minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially the demonization of my people, the Hazara, the Indigenous inhabitants of the region who mainly live in the central highlands of Afghanistan."

(text by Khadim Ali)