Khadim Ali shares his insights on making meanings through art and culture. Khadim Ali currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia and Quetta, Pakistan. Ali was trained in classical miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore. Khadim Ali received his Master of Fine Art (MFA) from the University of New South Wales in 2016. He belongs to the minority ethnic Hazara of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are the inhabitants of the central part of Afghanistan, where in 2001 the colossal sixth-century Buddha statues were destroyed. The Shahnamah (Book of Kings) was read to Ali by his grandfather and its illustrations were his first lessons in art history.Rich in traditional and modern motifs of Eastern and Western art-historical references, Ali’s works tell stories about loss (of his own cultural heritage and of human values) and about how meaning shifts as words and images are twisted through ideological adoption. Ali’s intricate works depict stories of demons and angels, conquest and war through the lens of the persecuted Hazara community. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx