Artist

Bani Abidi

The Reassuring Hand Gestures of Big Men, Small Men, All Men (2021), presents an archive of physical posturing and gesture that evokes charisma, camaraderie, and patriotism, which we often associate with a particular vein of masculine leadership. Using news media as her source, Abidi identified specific body language from prominent leaders and heads of state across geographic borders, political parties, and historic eras. The resulting portraits, which are close up photographs of photographs, capture these virtuosic performances of power, while also indexing their unremarkable commonality. Individuals featured in the work include: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Omar al-Bashir, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Idi Amin, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ayub Khan, Imran Khan, Ayatollah Khomeini, Kim Jong Un, Alexander Lukashenko, Narendra Modi, Pervez Musharraf, Benjamin Netanyahu, Richard Nixon, Barack Obama, Augusto Pinochet, Vladimir Putin, Ronald Reagan, Haile Selassie, Mobutu Sese Seko, Nawaz Sharif, Joseph Stalin, Donald Trump, Zia-ul-Haq, Jorge Rafael Videla, Xi Jinping, Asif Ali Zardari, Mao Zedong.