By Caroline Smith
In many cases, art works say something about the people who make them, and the statue of St Joseph the Worker in Perth’s St Mary’s Cathedral is no exception.
Created by local sculptor Mehdi Rasulle in 2009 in time for the newly renovated building, the statue depicts St Joseph as an ordinary carpenter – reflecting knowledge of the saint that Mr Rasulle gleaned from his upbringing in the Islamic faith.
He said his vision of St Joseph worked well with what Emeritus Archbishop Hickey and former Dean, Monsignor Thomas McDonald, wanted for the statue, which sits at the rear of the Cathedral, close to a carving of St Mary MacKillop also completed by Mr Rasulle.
“They wanted a figure of an honest, hardworking man for the St Joseph character,” he said.
“I’m Muslim and we believe that St Joseph is one of our prophets – we know him as an ordinary working man.”
The statue is one of several works by Mr Rasulle that reflect the diversity of his experiences, including family background in Afghanistan and his journey from teenage refugee to sculptor of note in Perth.
For St Joseph the Worker, this included the addition of Hebrew words Joseph son of David carved into the jarrah wood – an idea suggested by a Jewish friend, says Mr Rasulle – together with his approach to the facial features of the saint, which the administration wanted to look more authentic.
“The other thing was to make him look more Middle Eastern,” he said.
“I described a concept for the figure and they said ‘come up with that’.”
Mr Rasulle came to Australia from Afghanistan in 2001, escaping the Taliban regime that discriminated against people of Hazara ethnic background and those who did not fall into line with the hard-line interpretation of Islam.
Both factors affected his family, with a brother, Nik Qadem, being killed by the Taliban for teaching art – this was seen as ‘promoting Christianity’ because he taught students about classical art works which often included Christian characters.
Another brother, Abbas, had to leave his artistic career and become a panel beater because of similar threats.
After spending six months at the Curtin detention centre in the Kimberley, Mr Rasulle continued his high school studies and went on to university, where he decided to pursue a career in sculpture and art instead of architecture.
Recounting how he made this decision, he says his family background may have played a part in it.
“Back home in Afghanistan, members of my family work as artists and stone masons,” he said.
“Being Muslim and a sculptor is a challenge because many of the faith don’t believe in depicting living things and people.
“But my family is quite liberal, so we got commissions from around the world and did the work.”
After finishing his studies, Mr Rasulle embarked on a career that has seen him create sculptures and public art works for a number of clients, including museums, government departments and local government bodies.
“I do a lot of public art for institutions like the Department of Education and museums, things like that,” he said.
“Also art work renovations, like the sculpture that’s part of the Bunbury War Memorial – it needed to be fixed up a bit, and I found some marble from Afghanistan that could be used – it matched the original quite well.”
Outside his career as an artist, Mehdi is also a proud father, having met and married Joanne, an Irish woman, in Australia. They now have three children: Eolann, Eabha and Roisin.
From pages 24 and 25 from Issue 2: ‘Family: What does it mean in 2016?’ of The Record Magazine