Title: Armor

Date: 2016

Medium: Video, 3 mins

Title: Kubra and Pedestrian Sign

Date: 2016

Medium: Video, 4.5 mins

Artist: Kubra Khadema

Exhibition: Notes of an Urban Pedestrian, 2019

From press release:

Khademi walked along a Kabul street dressed in a metal suit of armour emphasising her breasts, buttocks and groin. Underneath she wore a traditional hijab. The work was originally performed at a location near her family’s home and [during] the performance had to seek refuge in a friend’s car.

“I am a woman and I live in the world. In such a space, this impression disturbs me. I faced sexual harassment and abuse since my childhood. This didn’t stop even when I wore a chador or hijab, as many girls wear in Afghanistan. I am not in peace. I am not in war. This is not a war situation. This is just a woman who’s walking, and I don’t live in my country anymore, but it is not easy in any country I live in. I don’t want to make a conclusion — what is good, what is bad — I am tired of things to prove, to fight, to struggle.”

In Kubra and Pedestrian Sign, Khademi walked through Paris dressed as a pedestrian road sign. Instead of a generic male figure, her sign featured a female figure. She wore a black dress and held up a pedestrian box figure on a stick as she walked through urban space toward actual street signs, adding the female figure to the urban landscape.

From artists:

Here is the video link of the performance.

Instagram:

@kubra_khademi

@kubra.khademi