Exiled Homes, 2006, mixed media on paper, 82 x 52 inches.
 
  
In this composition Hussain reflects on the experience of exile, migration and displacement. A figure takes steady steps balancing the load of houses. The uniform rows of houses in several stories strongly suggest the urban landscape, and reflect on the urbanization, struggles of the people - both physical and emotional. The homes devoid of inhabitants evoke a sense of alienation and disconnect of urban life. Everything unfolds against the pleasant blue sky, indicative of nature.

Hovering Over the Local Landscape, 2008, mixed media on paper, 85 x 57 inches.
 
 
This painting is a continuation of Hussain’s exploration of the issue of exile. It shows a man, a woman and a child afloat balancing the huge structure of several houses over their headless bodies. The entire composition of houses surrealistically rests on levitating bodies on the bottom register. Migration and the feeling of displacement, of not feeling the sense belongingness within the social set-up, or city strongly manifest here.

Prolonged Hours of Disguised Situations, 2012, mixed media on paper, 80 x 180 inches.

The large painting is densely populated with abundant images of wounded bodies and mutilated, and amputated body parts. Largely falling into Hussain’s intellectual engagement of the human body as a site of subjugation, it glaringly presents surreal imagery of bodies interacting with and consumed by conspicuous objects. The bodies here are engaged in a combat with the mechanical world of machines and tools - from pairs of scissors to the motor car and many imaginary contraptions. The struggle between natural and the mechanised worlds are manifested in what Hussain calls as ‘disguised situations’. The wounds here, fresh, open and bleeding, are amplified strikingly highlighting the violence within and outside. The painting takes us to another invisible world we are surrounded within. The images come across as disturbing constructing a world of chaos and destruction. They recall the concept of punishment, the notion of ‘hell’.

In Greek mythology, Procrustes was a robber who tied his victims to a bed, and in order to make them fit he would either stretch or cut off their legs. Hussain adopts this as a metaphor to reflect upon the arbitrarily asserted regularity in social life by the system. The diptych speaks about assertions of political or ideological conformism stating how such conformism is a torturous process and a violent one. The innumerable beds placed with mutilated bodies offer a stunning example of Hussain’s ability to visualize the massive compositions with an astonishing level of detail. The human bodies here, like in other paintings are representative of mass, emphasizing the universality of life and its sufferings.  In some sense, Hussain makes us realise how we may have subjugated ourselves to conformism without realizing the barbaric side of it.