Pattani Biennale
Gelak, Jangan Jatuh Cinta*
{{{a wound emits its own light}}}
with
Abdul Abdullah
Chris Yap
Izyanti Asa'ari
Nhawfal Juma'at
Curated by
anthropos
Part of the Pattani Biennale: Simple Poetry
Agust 8 - November 1, 2026
This recent series of small paintings was made as an extension of my 2012 paintings and as a response to an incident that occurred in Sydney when a group of men were attacked and dragged by police while they were praying. In February 2026 there was a large protest at the Sydney Town Hall against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog. In the lead up to the event the State’s Premier created controversial anti-protest laws that were later successfully challenged in court and deemed unlawful. In acting out these laws, the police brutally engaged with protestors and there if footage of them dragging people to the floor and punching them. Amongst the protesters a group of Muslim men approached the senior police officer at the scene and requested permission to observe their Mahgrib prayers. The request was granted, and they moved away from the crowd and commenced their traditional religious practice. There they were violently set upon by police who would later claim that that the permission the group had received had not been passed on to them.
The three paintings in this series allude to the takattuf position in prayer where the right hand is clasped over the left, and rested against the stomach, while the supplicant is in a standing position. The incident these paintings refer to is an explicit act of religious practice acting in defiance to political authority. My intention in this work was to make a quiet nod to prayer as resistance while also understanding that the position of the hands may not be recognised by an audience unfamiliar with Islamic practice. In this way, rather than desiring to educate, I am acknowledging a specific audience who already possess an understanding of these traditions. Like all my work, these paintings aren’t an endorsement or an interrogation of religion, but rather the politicisation of identity, and how that framing is used to persecute and suppress marginalised groups.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/13/nsw-police-muslim-prayer-sydney-protest-ntwnfb