Mahtab Hussain Confronts Islamophobia in the UK

In August 2024, at a time when British cities were blighted by racist riots, Birmingham’s Muslim community braced itself as rumours spread of a far-right rally. Although the march never materialized, such fears were rooted in a dog whistle-laced political climate that had long fuelled incidents of racist violence. Set against this backdrop, Mahtab Hussain’s ‘What Did You Want to See?’ at IKON Gallery, Birmingham, presents a polyvocal examination of fear, hate and resistance centred within the British South Asian Muslim community to which the artist belongs. Through photographic, video and installation works, Hussain documents how community members have made space for themselves and their faith within their city whilst confronting the UK’s stifling, racist landscape. 

The exhibition opens with a grid of 160 photographs showcasing the diverse architecture of Birmingham’s mosques, many of which occupy former residential or commercial buildings (‘Mosque City: Birmingham’s Spiritual Landscape’, 2023–25). The majority of these spaces of worship and gathering blend in with the red-brick facades of neighbouring properties: bins are scattered around entrances; parked cars dot the streets outside; some have distinctive, prominent minarets; others announce their purpose with straightforward, blocky signs. The work reveals how Birmingham’s Muslims have carved out spaces for themselves within the city’s pre-existing building stock: these mosques facilitate much-needed communal gathering, despite many of them not having the funding to create more architecturally welcoming spaces.

This visual documentation is paired with a map detailing a counter-terrorism surveillance programme that located number-plate recognition technology and CCTV cameras near Muslim-majority areas. Viewed in conjunction with the photographs, this map is a scathing critique of how the UK government allocates its vast resources, the state electing to view these spaces of communing and charity with invasive suspicion.

Hussain also presents a jerky, stuttering film – made with longtime collaborator Guy Gunaratne – that surveys racism against South Asians in the UK. Here Is the Brick (2025) splices together footage of racist 1980s and ’90s television programmes, anti-Muslim chants by white football supporters, Islamophobic statements by politicians and news coverage of the 2005 London suicide-bomber attacks. The film is a cacophony of pop-cultural and political references, mirroring the quotidian experience of being a Muslim in Britain today, while Hussain’s use of quick cuts and videotape-like skipping lends the piece a claustrophobic feeling, as an overwhelming barrage of bigoted voices floods the gallery. Footage from riots across the country – showing bricks and stones being thrown by anonymous figures, their faces obscured by balaclavas – is contrasted with imagery of South Asian Muslims reclaiming these same weapons while gazing pointedly at the camera. 

‘Birmingham Chapter’ (2024–ongoing) is a series of black and white portraits that captures the diversity of Birmingham’s South Asian Muslim community: one woman sports a black hoodie (Alisha, 2024), another smokes a cigarette (Imtiaz, 2024), whilst a man holds a car tyre over his shoulder (Daddy Shaf, 2024). Although the sitters are all photographed head-on, some look warmly towards the camera while others take a confrontational stance. The work highlights the inherent vulnerability in standing before a camera and allowing yourself to be captured. By controlling how he represents his community – against a political background that simultaneously erases the experiences of Muslims in Britain and makes them dangerously visible, framed as threats to society – ‘Birmingham Chapter’ is Hussain’s attempt to reclaim visual agency. 

One shot perfectly encapsulates Hussain’s artistic project: a British-Pakistani family stand outside their front door gazing nervously into the night sky (Neighbourhood Watched, 2025). As with many of the works on display, Hussain seems to be asking: What does home mean when it is so intertwined with trepidation and hostility?

Mahtab Hussain, ‘What Did You Want to See?’ is on view at IKON Gallery, Birmingham, until 1 June. The exhibition is a co-commission between IKON Gallery and Photoworks

^{Main image: Mahtab Hussain, Eid Prayer in Birmingham (detail), 2017, digital C-type print, 1.5 × 1 m. Courtesy: the artist}