Lida Abdul was born in Kabul in 1973. She received a BA in political science in 1997 and a BA in philosophy in 1998 from California State University, Fullerton, and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine, in 2000. Abdul fled Afghanistan with her family following the Soviet invasion in 1979, and lived as refugee in India and Germany before immigrating to the United States. Based on this experience, Abdul considers herself a nomadic artist, and her films, videos, and installations are permeated with themes of cultural identity, migration, and the processes of destruction and displacement that have marked Afghanistan’s recent history. Abdul’s work often focuses on bodies and landscapes, exploring their complex interaction as a way to examine notions of identity, homeland, exile, and political resistance. In the video Dome (2005), the artist documents her chance encounter with a young boy wandering a war-ravaged landscape. The boy stares transfixed at the blue sky through a roofless mosque while continually spinning in circles, inducing a dizziness in the viewer that serves as a metaphor for the losses of self and place enacted by war. At the same time, the boy’s apparently purposeless movement suggests both the irrationality of actions perpetrated in the name of war and the boundless human capacity for hope. Abdul explores similar ideas in her film White House (2005), which depicts the black-clad artist painting white the bombed ruins of the former presidential palace outside Kabul. While the gesture is absurdly futile, it serves as a symbol of renewal and a critique of several decades of conflict and the War on Terror spearheaded by the United States. Alluding to the nation’s capital, and to the violence involved in its whitewashing of history, Adbul’s film is an indictment and an act of resistance against imperialism and its catastrophic legacy. Abdul has had solo exhibitions at the National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul (2007); Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (2008); Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois (2010); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga, Spain, and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (both 2013); and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris (2014). She has been included in the group exhibitions Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum (2007); History of Violence, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel (2009); Beyond Memory, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem (2011); and Transition Project, Yapi Kredi Kültür Merkezi, Istanbul (2013), and has participated in the Venice Biennale (2005 and 2015); Moscow Biennial (2007); and Documenta, Kassel, Germany (2012). She is a recipient of the Taiwan Award at the Venice Biennale (2005); Prince Claus Cultural Award, Amsterdam (2006); UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts, Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates (2007); and EMAF Award, Osnabrueck, Germany (2009). Abdul lives and works in Los Angeles and Kabul.