In August 2024, at a time when British cities had been blighted by racist riots, Birmingham’s Muslim neighborhood braced itself as rumours unfold of a far-right rally. Though the march by no means materialized, such fears had been rooted in a canine whistle-laced political local weather that had lengthy fuelled incidents of racist violence. Set in opposition to this backdrop, Mahtab Hussain’s ‘What Did You Need to See?’ at IKON Gallery, Birmingham, presents a polyvocal examination of worry, hate and resistance centred throughout the British South Asian Muslim neighborhood to which the artist belongs. By photographic, video and set up works, Hussain paperwork how neighborhood members have made house for themselves and their religion inside their metropolis while confronting the UK’s stifling, racist panorama.
The exhibition opens with a grid of 160 images showcasing the various structure of Birmingham’s mosques, lots of which occupy former residential or industrial buildings (‘Mosque Metropolis: Birmingham’s Religious Panorama’, 2023–25). Nearly all of these areas of worship and gathering mix in with the red-brick facades of neighbouring properties: bins are scattered round entrances; parked vehicles dot the streets exterior; some have distinctive, distinguished minarets; others announce their goal with easy, blocky indicators. The work reveals how Birmingham’s Muslims have carved out areas for themselves throughout the metropolis’s pre-existing constructing inventory: these mosques facilitate much-needed communal gathering, regardless of lots of them not having the funding to create extra architecturally welcoming areas.
This visible documentation is paired with a map detailing a counter-terrorism surveillance programme that situated number-plate recognition know-how and CCTV cameras close to Muslim-majority areas. Considered along with the images, this map is a scathing critique of how the UK authorities allocates its huge assets, the state electing to view these areas of communing and charity with invasive suspicion.
Hussain additionally presents a jerky, stuttering movie – made with longtime collaborator Man Gunaratne – that surveys racism in opposition to South Asians within the UK. Right here Is the Brick (2025) splices collectively footage of racist Nineteen Eighties and ’90s tv programmes, anti-Muslim chants by white soccer supporters, Islamophobic statements by politicians and information protection of the 2005 London suicide-bomber assaults. The movie is a cacophony of pop-cultural and political references, mirroring the quotidian expertise of being a Muslim in Britain at the moment, whereas Hussain’s use of fast cuts and videotape-like skipping lends the piece a claustrophobic feeling, as an amazing barrage of bigoted voices floods the gallery. Footage from riots throughout the nation – exhibiting bricks and stones being thrown by nameless figures, their faces obscured by balaclavas – is contrasted with imagery of South Asian Muslims reclaiming these identical weapons whereas gazing pointedly on the digicam.
‘Birmingham Chapter’ (2024–ongoing) is a collection of black and white portraits that captures the range of Birmingham’s South Asian Muslim neighborhood: one girl sports activities a black hoodie (Alisha, 2024), one other smokes a cigarette (Imtiaz, 2024), while a person holds a automobile tyre over his shoulder (Daddy Shaf, 2024). Though the sitters are all photographed head-on, some look warmly in the direction of the digicam whereas others take a confrontational stance. The work highlights the inherent vulnerability in standing earlier than a digicam and permitting your self to be captured. By controlling how he represents his neighborhood – in opposition to a political background that concurrently erases the experiences of Muslims in Britain and makes them dangerously seen, framed as threats to society – ‘Birmingham Chapter’ is Hussain’s try to reclaim visible company.
One shot completely encapsulates Hussain’s creative undertaking: a British-Pakistani household stand exterior their entrance door gazing nervously into the night time sky (Neighbourhood Watched, 2025). As with most of the works on show, Hussain appears to be asking: What does dwelling imply when it’s so intertwined with trepidation and hostility?
Mahtab Hussain, ‘What Did You Need to See?’ is on view at IKON Gallery, Birmingham, till 1 June. The exhibition is a co-commission between IKON Gallery and Photoworks
Most important picture: Mahtab Hussain, Eid Prayer in Birmingham (element), 2017, digital C-type print, 1.5 × 1 m. Courtesy: the artist
