Mahmoud Obaidi: Mosquito Effects

Speaking truth to power has never been something Mahmoud Obaidi has shied away from in his work. The artist was introduced to the notion of injustice from his adolescence, and has since spent much of his life processing the destruction of his homeland and the isolation of exile.

In creating art which confronts these complex issues, Obaidi looks beyond simplistic politics and perceptions of identity, instead seeking to uncover and understand trauma from a historical, structural and geographical lens.

As with much of Obaidi’s oeuvre, this latest body of work is made up of a multitude of layers which lie behind the external, visible yet abstract structures, shapes and colour, revealing a visual inquiry which goes far beyond the difficult topics which he seeks to tackle – namely colonisation and genocide – and simultaneously forces him to look within and explore his own personal sense of displacement.