cast BIOGRAPHIES
You See Monsters tells the inspirational story of how a new generation of Australian Muslim artists are using imagination and creativity to assert their own agency in the face of anti-Islamic bigotry.
Abdul Abdullah: Artist
Abdul Abdullah is an artist from Perth, currently based in Sydney, who works across painting, photography, video, performance and installation art. A seventh-generation Australian who traces his Antipodean roots back to convict ancestry, Abdul is particularly concerned with the experience of young Muslims in Australia. Abdul is a winner of the Blake Prize for Human Justice.
Cigdem Aydemir: Artist
A Sydney-based Australian performance artist, Cigdem Aydemir is particularly interested in representations of Islam and the image of the veiled woman. Her provocative burqa sculptures explore notions of extremism and paranoia with political incisiveness and tongue-in-cheek levity. Cigdem was the 2013 recipient of the Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize in the Emerging Artist category.
Safdar Ahmed: Graphic novelist
Safdar Ahmed is a Sydney-based artist, musician and academic. He is the creator of the Walkley Award winning graphic novel Villawood: Notes From An Immigration Detention Centre, a founder of the Refugee Art Project, and the author of Reform & Modernity in Islam. Safdar’s love of surrealism and horror-movie iconography inspired him to form Hazeen, Australia’s only Muslim death metal zombie band.
SARA MANSOUR: Spoken word POET
Sara Mansour is an Australian spoken word poet. She is best known as the co-founder and host of the Bankstown Poetry Slam, the biggest poetry slam in the Southern Hemisphere. Sara was presented with the 2016 Pemulwuy Prize by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for her outstanding contribution to the social fabric of Western Sydney.
ABDUL-RAHMAN ABDULLAH: ARTIST
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah is a West Australian artist working primarily in sculpture and installation art. His autobiographical work explores the impact of memory, personal history, nostalgia and familial spaces on the formation of identity. Abdul-Rahman is the older brother of artist Abdul Abdullah.
AAMER RAHMAN: COMEDIAN
Comedian, writer and former Fear Of A Brown Planet star, Aamer Rahman is a Melbourne-based performer whose acerbic political comedy forces audiences to contemplate both the pervasiveness of racism and white people’s awkward complicity in its perpetuation. Aamer has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Sydney Opera House and the UK’s Islamophobia Awards.
ZOHAB ZEE KHAN: SLAM POET
Zohab Zee Khan is a Sydney-based spoken word poet, educator, and hip-hop artist. His work confronts a range of social justice issues from racism to gender inequality. He was crowned Australian Poetry Slam Champion in 2014.