sing irony and humor, Bani Abidi takes aim at the self-seriousness of patriarchal tyrants and the flimsy pageantry of militaristic nationalism. In the newly created photo installation (2021), Abidi catalogues the gestures and dispositions (2019–), which depicts men in Pakistan who have either been disappeared by the state or are in danger of it—primarily journalists, political activists, or other dissidents. More tongue-in-cheek in tone, (2012) is a fictional story about a small-time politician who commissioned a monumental statue of himself from an actual Indian sculptor who works on sculptures for politicians or national figures.
