The impact of past and present conflict on Middle Eastern art and art history
The Middle East is traditionally defined as the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia), Levant, and Egypt and neighbouring areas of Arabia, Anatolia and Iran. It currently encompasses the area from Egypt, Turkey and Cyprus in the west to Iran and the Persian Gulf in the east, and from Turkey and Iran in the north, to Yemen and Oman in the South. Escalating conflict in the region has led to renewed interest in the region’s artwork, particularly that made by women as it is ‘disappeared’ or removed from the system, and from our present and future art histories. Grassroots organisations such as ArtLords (Afghanistan) have emerged to harness the transformative power of art in war-torn regions, and passionate interest has sprung with scholars leaving restrictive areas to research and develop work in new art histories and art histories research for such regions.
Session Convenors:
Helen Gørrill, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design/University of Dundee,
Mahtab Karami, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design/University of Dundee
Awdhah Alotaibi, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design/University of Dundee
Speakers:
Mahtab Karami
Comparative Gendered Aesthetics in Contemporary Afghan Painting, pre/post-Taliban occupation
In this session Mahtab will be discussing her SGSAH-AHRC funded PhD, where she employs contemporary art theory and mixed methods to investigate an often-overlooked area of contemporary and postmodern Middle Eastern painting, with a particular focus on Afghan (female) artists. The project aims to develop new comparative aesthetic theories in contemporary Middle Eastern and Afghan painting, examining the impact of the Taliban regime. A curated digital library of images will be created, forming a permanent and vital collection of artworks otherwise currently being physically destroyed and disappeared under the brutal and misogynist Taliban regime. The research is crucial amidst the rapidly worsening conditions for women under Taliban-rule, where they are oppressed, their artistic value eradicated, and their societal contributions brutally restricted to forced subservience. It forms an important, impactful, and original contribution to knowledge, providing an urgent and powerful platform for oppressed Afghan (female/artists’) voices.
Mary Moussavi
Political Cinema: Narratives of Conflict, Struggle, and Resistance in the Middle East
Political cinema from the Middle East has gained significant recognition and influence in global art and film movements, offering a powerful lens through which to view the region’s socio-political struggles. This paper explores how filmmakers from the region have utilized cinema as both a creative and critical medium to respond to the socio-political forces shaping their societies, employing narrative and visual techniques that reflect themes of struggle, resistance and survival. By analyzing the thematic and stylistic approaches in this body of work, the paper examines how these films address the impact of regional conflicts—rooted in colonial histories, neocolonial interventions, and internal struggles—on cultural identity and artistic expression. They offer powerful portrayals of personal trauma, collective memory, and the enduring effects of socio-political instability. Middle Eastern political cinema represents a key artistic movement within global film history, transcending its regional context to influence global discourses of power, resistance, and identity. These films push the boundaries of form and expression, critiquing hegemonic structures and reshaping artistic narratives. This paper argues that political cinema from the Middle East plays an essential role in broadening the scope of art history by serving as a powerful medium for social change, resistance, and cultural dialogue. Through this lens, the study underscores the enduring significance of this cinema in shaping both the region’s artistic landscape and the global understanding of conflict.
Shahah Marnin-Distelfeld
Comics in times of war: Israeli artists respond to the October 7th Hamas attack
This study focuses on the genre of comics/graphic diary made by Israeli artists as a response to the war initiated by Hamas on 7.10.23. By using a combined methodology of visual analysis and interviews conducted with several artists, the study claims comics to be the ultimate genre for coping with the traumatic events Israel has been experiencing recently: rape and massacre, hostages held by Hamas and tens of thousands of evacuees from their homes. The study emphasises the unique features of comics to allow both a personal therapeutic expression, and a social agent designed to reflect and criticise reality. Findings reveal four characteristics of this genre, explaining its compatibility as a means of expression in times of war: A. The comics functions as a daily diary platform of expression, namely being used to describe a continuous situation, where events swiftly shift the course of life. The illustrations are by definition a series of every-day pieces, suitable for a day-by-day repetitive story telling. B. The comics contains both visual images and verbal texts, which provides the artist with the opportunity to combine direct messages drawn from the news, the social media, with more complex interpretations of this straightforwardness. C. Traditionally, comics has been distanced from any documentary imagery, featuring fictive representations of unrealistic figures using strong and extreme colours. This makes it easier for comics to be critical of reality. Its criticism is conveyed through nimble messages embodied in narrative episodes that include humorous depictions.
Nadia Rismanchi and Mojtaba Mortazavi
Analyzing the Concept of Alienation in Beyzaei’s Films through Genre and Cultural Theory in the Context of the Iranian Revolution: A Case Study of Downpour and Killing Mad Dogs
This paper examines alienation in Bahram Beyzaei’s films Downpour (1972) and Killing Mad Dogs (2001), using genre theory and cultural theory to analyze how the films portray changing social realities in Iran. Through genre theory, we explore Downpour as an existential drama in the pre-revolution era, where individual intellectual alienation takes center stage. In the close-knit, tradition-bound community, Mr. Hekmati (protagonist), an outsider and intellectual, experiences isolation and social marginalization, framed within familiar settings that restrict him due to cultural expectations and collective values. In Killing Mad Dogs, post-revolutionary genre shifts occur as the film adopts elements of social realism to critique societal disillusionment. The characters grapple with a decaying urban landscape, confronting issues like corruption and economic disparity—hallmarks of the post-revolution reality. Grounded in Stuart Hall’s cultural theory, this analysis views Beyzaei’s films as reflections of cultural shifts in Iranian society, particularly the transition from intellectual alienation (pre-revolution) to collective disillusionment (post-revolution). By applying Hall’s concept of encoding and decoding, we investigate how Beyzaei “encodes” sociopolitical commentary on identity and belonging into his narratives and settings, allowing audiences to “decode” these messages against the backdrop of Iran’s evolving societal norms. This theoretical approach elucidates how Beyzaei’s genre choices in Downpour and Killing Mad Dogs signify broader cultural dynamics, using the motif of public spaces to depict alienation in ways that resonate with Iran’s historical and cultural trajectory
Awdhah Alotaibi
Analysing the Impact of the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait on postmodern Kuwaiti paintings
This research focuses on exploring the profound impact of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on the artistic community.. The invasion was a catastrophic event that not only devastated the region but also deeply affected its cultural fabric. This study aims to uncover how the war has influenced artists’ creative process, emotional expression, and thematic choices. By analyzing art through a multi-method approach that includes visual analysis, historical context, and comparative studies, I seek to contribute to a deeper understanding of the intersection between art and war. This research will offer new insights into how artists process trauma and reflect societal changes, emphasizing the enduring power of art as a medium for healing, cultural preservation, and resistance. Ultimately, my work adds to the broader discourse on the psychological, cultural, and social effects of conflict on artists, using Kuwaiti artists’ experience as a lens to explore these complex dynamics.
Leena Nammari
A practice-based examination of the nature of Haneen: framing thoughts and representations on post-locational home and belonging.
Leena will be discussing work stemming from her SGSAH-AHRC funded PhD. This practice-based doctorate investigates the concept of Haneen (an Arabic term, meaning Nostalgia/longing) as an enduring force in Palestinian culture. Through creative praxis I research the role Haneen plays in collective consciousness and myth-making, where tensions of longing/belonging function as catalysts in artistic and social dialogue for displaced communities. Expanding from a basis of photographic and printmaking techniques, influenced by Palestinian literature and visual art, I will create multi-disciplinary artworks and installations exploring shared factual, remembered and mythologised experience as a visual response to contemporary Palestinian memories, migrant narratives and lived experience, reflecting the search for home and (be)longing. This practice-based PhD investigates the concept of Haneen (an Arabic term, meaning Nostalgia/longing) as an enduring force in Palestinian culture. Through creative praxis I research the role Haneen plays in collective consciousness and myth-making, where tensions of longing/belonging function as catalysts in artistic and social dialogue for displaced communities. Expanding from a basis of photographic and printmaking techniques, influenced by Palestinian literature and visual art, I will create multi-disciplinary artworks and installations exploring shared factual, remembered and mythologised experience as a visual response to contemporary Palestinian memories, migrant narratives and lived experience, reflecting the search for home and (be)longing.
Danielle Andréa Krikorian
Etel Adnan: Between Political Engagement and Philosophy
The 20th century was marred with conflict and struggle in the postcolonial Arab and Middle Eastern world, caused by French and British colonialism, including the Sykes-Picot agreement (1916).1 Such events included the Palestinian Nakba (translating into the Arabic word ‘catastrophe’) in 1948 (-ongoing),2 and the Lebanese civil war from 1975-1990. Artists and intellectuals created art and literary works/magazines representative of their experiences. It is in this perspective that Lebanese artist and writer Etel Adnan produced artworks that represented hope, fear, and displacement in the postcolonial Arab world. Her work was informed by her own experience of heartache and exile during the Lebanese civil war. The Levant was a transformative region, in which art from different eras had fused.3 Adnan’s art is embedded within this fusion, working with messages of hope, and Islamic philosophy to deconstruct colonial imperialism.4 This can be seen is her posters produced for ‘Shu’nun Filastinyya’ (Palestinian Affairs Magazine in English) in 1977, which represent the Palestinian and Lebanese homelands. How does and can Middle Eastern art and art history engage with conflicts? The research will explore this question through the multifaceted, important, and rarely examined relationship between anti-colonial modern Arab art, and historical Islamic practices and philosophies through the work of Lebanese artist Etel Adnan. More specifically, the paper will focus on a poster made by Adnan for the ‘Shu’n.
Senah Tuma
Duties of Decolonial Care in Middle Eastern Art History
In the context of urgent calls for decolonisation and anti-racism within the UK cultural sector, this presentation explores the ethical responsibilities the arts when engaging with and displaying the marginalised and war-torn in museums and galleries. Drawing on transdisciplinary frameworks from human geography and arts education, I examine the complexities of representing Middle Eastern art history through personal experience and community solidarity. Using contemporary case studies such as Kettle’s Yard’s recent exhibition ‘Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery’ and the Lebanese-based community ‘Haven for Artists,’ I reflect on the active disappearances of marginalized narratives and the necessity of responsibly centering these voices within contemporary discourses alongside the urgency of ongoing geopolitical crises. Utilising first hand experiences, this paper’s self-reflexive approach highlights the author’s positionality as a researcher of Middle Eastern descent. This paper proposes that embracing duties of care requires a critical examination of how we navigate issues of representation, appropriation, and active forgetting surrounding the marginalised. How do our spaces of art, which are shaped and produced within whiteness, adopt these efforts? By engaging with decolonial and anti-racist thought, I aim to outline a framework that supports ethical interactions with marginalised communities, ultimately contributing to the shaping and meaning-making of Middle Eastern art history. This presentation tackles the question: what do we DO as art historians when ‘much is at stake’ in these times of urgent need for solidarity and ethical reflection?