Idil Abdullahi

Idil Abdullahi is a ceramic artist who was born in Somalia and arrived in Australia in 1993 as a refugee with her family. She has completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Arts and Design, majoring in Ceramics. Aside from her artistic practice, Idil is a community arts and cultural worker who is passionate about utilising the creative Arts as a tool for building stronger and resilient communities. She works with non-government organisations as well as local councils to facilitate relevant creative projects mainly with women and youth from refugee or marginalised communities in local areas. She sees herself as a “story teller” by means of the visual arts to communicate issues and ideas that are significant to her and the communities she works with. In her art practice, Idil often uses symbols of faith and culture to examine her personal ideas of identity and belonging.

A generous mentoring grant from Museums and Galleries gave Idil the opportunity to work with Cumberland Council as a curator. A project that brought together diverse African Australian artists in Sydney with an exhibition that was a first of its kind in Australia.  The African Diaspora Exhibition was a highly successful exhibition that gave voice to many African Australian visual artists who are often not represented in mainstream exhibitions and spaces. Idil’s work featured at the Casula Powerhouse in 2012 for the No Added Sugar exhibition and she was the recipient of the Strathnairn Artist In Residency grant in 2015.

Idil’s ceramic studio practice is based in Sydney, and her current work explores individual and community ideas and anxieties about separation; separation from familiar places, separation from people and separation from our creator and our very own nature.

Website: www.idilabdullahi.com

Instagram: barefoot_potter

Image credit: Idil Abdullahi, Loss (2012), Photography by Equilibrium Design.