Hands held together. Bodies forming circles, then rows. Standing side by side. Fabric drapes softly over shoulders and arms. A way of relating to one another. A quiet articulation of sisterhood.
In We Will Meet Again in Paradise, her first exhibition with NILS STÆRK, Ikram Abdulkadir presents a series of works shaped by intimacy, care, and shared experience. Working within a documentary photographic tradition, she photographs the women closest to her – sisters, friends, and members of her community – approaching the camera as both participant and observer. The images arise from everyday environments, both urban and domestic, yet carry a heightened sense of presence and attention.
Across the works, individuals and groups of young women appear in flowing jilbaabs, forming quiet constellations of bodies and gazes. At times they meet the camera directly; at others they turn toward one another or away, absorbed in their own exchange, or appearing alone. Moving between portrait and collective scene, the photographs trace gestures of closeness that evoke forms of sisterhood both lived and imagined.
Living as a Black Muslim woman in Scandinavia often means being seen and interpreted through a gaze shaped by scrutiny and preconceived ideas. Within such conditions of visibility, relationships between women can become vital spaces of support and recognition. Writer and activist Audre Lorde wrote of the strength found in bonds between Black women – relationships formed through shared experience, support, and collective care. In Abdulkadir’s work, these relations appear not as abstract ideas but as lived gestures.
Lorde also described self-definition as a necessary act of resistance, reminding us that if Black women do not define themselves, they will inevitably be defined by others. Abdulkadir’s photographs embody this insistence. Emerging from the relationships they depict, the images shift the terms through which these women are seen. Working from her own experience, Abdulkadir transforms the everyday moments of her life into images that open a shared space of recognition.
The title We Will Meet Again in Paradise carries both spiritual and emotional resonance. In Islamic belief, paradise is imagined as a place of reunion. Within Abdulkadir’s photographs, this idea appears less as a distant promise than as something momentarily realized in the act of gathering itself – through closeness, care, and the quiet recognition that emerges between those who stand side by side.
In parallel with this exhibition, Ikram Abdulkadir will present a solo exhibition, Soft Focus, at Moderna Museet Malmö, opening May 2, 2026.
Kilde: NILS STÆRK