hamra abbas

Buffalos in Combat (2008) directly references a 16th C Mughual miniature painting depicting a pair of buffalo with horns locked in battle. The subject matter of this painting was popular during the reign of Emperor Akbar (1556-1605), where artists took pride in depicting vibrant and naturalistic scenes of courtly sports. Abbas renders this scene in life-size sculptural form, exploring the spectacle of death under state-sponsored systems of violence. Abbas uses historical images as a means to comment on the normalization of violence in the contemporary world, reflecting on state sanctioned terror and its relationship to underworld violence. Haema Sivanesan