Afghani artist Lida Abdul chronicles her homeland’s struggle to rebuild by david balzer For Lida Abdul, home has always been a work-in-progress. Born in 1973 in Kabul, Afghanistan, the multimedia artist fled the country with her family soon after the Soviet invasion of ’79. She has now partially returned, dividing her time between the wartorn capital and Los Angeles. Abdul’s latest video and performance works use her tormented birthplace as a backdrop: vast deserts and razed cities are her principal settings, architecture—particularly the destruction and reconstruction of homes—her abounding motif. In White House, her video for the 2005 Venice Biennale, Abdul paints the rubble of Kabul white in a wilful act of purification and commemoration. In another piece, War Games (What I Saw), she documents the dismantling of a bombed-out residence, focusing intently on the men circling it on horseback, pulling ropes back and forth as if trying to fell a monster. Their persistent, rhythmic straining becomes a symbol of hope: a clearing of the past, making room for a better, more firmly rooted future.

War Games. Artwork not for sale. March 15 to April 28. Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, 401 Richmond St. W., Ste. 124, 416-591-0357, www.prefix.ca