AFTER LIFE: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

b. 1990, Damascus, Syria
Lives and works in San Francisco

Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth, 2020

Multimedia installation featuring:

Grace 298, 2020

Screen print on muslin, chiffon and polyester, archival inkjet print on silk, tassels, embroidery, camel hair yarn, lace, various trimmings

Mercy 258, 2020

Screen print on muslin, chiffon and raw silk, inkjet print on silk, various trimming and plastic sequins

Grace and Mercy 556, 2020

Animation, 6 min.

Courtesy the artist

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth, 2020, installation view, AFTER LIFE (we survive), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photograph by Tommy Lau.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth, 2020, installation view, AFTER LIFE (we survive), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photograph by Tommy Lau

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth, 2020, installation view, AFTER LIFE (we survive), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photograph by Thea Quiray Tagle.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth, 2020, installation view, AFTER LIFE (we survive), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photograph by John Foster Cartwright.

Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth is an investigation into histories of popular resistance, guerrilla warfare, and anti-imperialism in SASWANA (South Asia, Southwest Asia, North Africa) that are re-interpreted to create an archive of a speculative revolution in a post-human world. Employing textile-based installations, video works, and performances, Bhutto uses Islam as a vehicle to propel a queer futurist imagination that is anti-imperialist and draws on occult and mystic practices to create new worlds.

Watch the video and scroll through the images to engage with this installation virtually.

You can experience Tomorrow We Inherit the Earth in person at YBCA in the windows facing the Gardens.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is Pakistani Lebanese visual artist, performer and curator. Bhutto’s work explores complex histories of colonialism that are exacerbated by contemporary international politics and in the process unpacks the intersections of queerness and Islam through a multi-media practice. Bhutto was curatorial resident at SOMArts Cultural Center where he co-curated The Third Muslim: Queer and Trans Muslim Narratives of Resistance and Resilience, and has shown in galleries, museums and theaters globally.

See more →