Related guides
Alternative Iran by
Alternative Iran offers a unique contribution to the field of contemporary art, investigating how Iranian artists engage with space and site amid the pressures of the art market and the state's regulatory regimes. Since the 1980s, political, economic, and intellectual forces have driven Iran's creative class toward increasingly original forms of artmaking not meant for official venues. Instead, these art forms appear in private homes with "trusted" audiences, derelict buildings, leftover urban zones, and remote natural sites. While many of these venues operate independently, others are fully sanctioned by the state. Drawing on interviews with over a hundred artists, gallerists, theater experts, musicians, and designers, Pamela Karimi throws into sharp relief the extraordinary art and performance activities that have received little attention outside Iran. Attending to nonconforming curatorial projects, independent guerrilla installations, escapist practices, and tacitly subversive performances, Karimi discloses the push-and-pull between the art community and the authorities, and discusses myriad instances of tentative coalition as opposed to outright partnership or uncompromising resistance. Illustrated with more than 120 full-color images, this book provides entry into unique artistic experiences without catering to voyeuristic curiosity around Iran's often-perceived "underground" culture.
Call Number: SMFA and Tisch: NX574.A1 K37 2022
Art of the Middle East by
Artistic expression in the Middle East is experiencing something of a renaissance. Domestic patronage is flourishing, and an impressive array of new museums and art fairs across the region is helping to stimulate international interest in an increasingly influential movement. Art of the Middle East is an accessible overview of modern and contemporary art of the Middle East and Arab world from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on artists active today. The featured works are divided into seven themed sections - including literature, portraiture and the body, and politics, conflict and war - while extended captions provide an engaging commentary on each artwork and the artist behind its creation. Lavishly illustrated throughout, this landmark publication is an authoritative guide to a challenging and exciting body of work.
Call Number: SMFA & Tisch: N7265 .E54 2010
Assassins of the Turquoise Palace by
On the evening of September 17, 1992, eight leading members of the Iranian and Kurdish opposition had gathered at a little-known restaurant in Berlin when two darkly-clad men burst through the entrance. Within moments, the roar of a machine gun filled the air. Two rounds of fire and four single shots later, four of the men were dead. One of the survivors of that shooting, along with the widow of one of the victims and a handful of reporters, attorneys, and fellow exiles, began a crusade that would not only pit them against Tehran but against some of the greatest powers in Germany. When an undeterred federal prosecutor, and an endlessly patient chief judge, took over the case, a historic verdict followed which shook both Europe and Iran, and achieved something few could have predicted—justice. Roya Hakakian’s The Assassins of the Turquoise Palace is an incredible book of history and reportage, and an unforgettable narrative of heroism and justice.
Call Number: SMFA: HV6278 .H319 2011
Disoriental by
"Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five and facing the future she has built for herself as well as the prospect of a new generation, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which come to her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them"-
Call Number: SMFA: PQ3979.3.D53 D4713 2018
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by
LONGLISTED for the 2021 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE LONGLISTED for the 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for Translated Literature FINALIST for the 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE From the pen of one of Iran's rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead. Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land. Bahar's mother, after a tragic loss, will embark on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning in a world swept up in the post-revolutionary madness. Told from the wise yet innocent gaze of a young girl, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Through her unforgettable characters, Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime.
Call Number: SMFA: PK6562.1.Z37 I8413 2020``
Future imperfect : contemporary art practices and cultural institutions in the Middle East by
"Future Imperfect critically examines the role played by cultural institutions in producing present-day and future contexts for the production, dissemination, and reception of contemporary art in the Middle East and North Africa. It offers critical contexts for a discussion that has become increasingly urgent in recent years - the role of culture in a time of conflict and globalization - and an in-depth critique of the historical state of cultural institutions in an age of political upheaval, social unrest, exuberant cultural activity, ascendant neoliberal forms of privatization, social activism, and regional uncertainty. Based on collective input from numerous contributors and interlocutors, this volume brings together internationally renowned academics, critics, activists, filmmakers, artists, and other independent cultural practitioners to consider how new infrastructures and institutions can effectively emerge within such fraught and dynamic contexts"--Jacket.
Call Number: SMFA: N7265 .F88 2016
Geometry and Art by
In a groundbreaking volume about the use of Islamic geometry in modern and contemporary art from the region, Middle East art expert and Sothebys Deputy Chairman Roxane Zand, and Dr Sussan Babaie professor of Islamic arts at the Courtauld Institute of Art of the University of London, explore ways in which traditional geometric legacies are applied and interpreted in new contexts. Dr Babaie's scholarly essay traces the significance of geometry in the history of Islamic arts, looking at the emergence of modernisms of the Middle East through the prism of selected works by twenty artists and their multidisciplinary practices. Their works underscore the distinctive ways geometry, a universal heritage, has inspired the art of the region. Lavishly illustrated and bound, the book is aimed at both the general user and those with academic interest.
Call Number: SMFA: N8217.G44 G46 2019
In the Fields of Empty Days by
Filled with vibrant examples of painting, photography, sculpture, video, and other media, this book reveals how Iran's leading artists weave the country's past into the fabric of its contemporary art. The catalogue includes essays written by Linda Komaroff, curator of Islamic art and department head of Art of the Middle East at LACMA, and contributions from Sheila R. Canby, Sheida Dayani, Hamid Keshmirshekan, Hani Khafipour, Vali Mahlouji, Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan, Shadi Shafiei, and Sandra Williams. The book also explores how pre-Modern artists first began to manipulate time by visually shifting the past into the present as demonstrated by Persian miniature painting, in particular illustrated versions of the Shahnama, or Book of Kings, the Iranian national epic. Statements from prominent contemporary artists consider the creative means by which they evoke the past to address present-day social and political concerns. Designed to promote fluid movement between the historical and the modern, this wide-ranging book offers a unique and important exploration of a country with a rich and complicated heritage. LACMA press release, 02.22.2018. http://www.lacma.org/sites/default/files/In-the-Fields-of-Empty-Days-Catalogue-release-2.22.18.pdf
Call Number: SMFA and Tisch: N72.H58 I5 2018
Kurdish Women's Stories by
'A fascinating, inspiring journey' - Meredith Tax, author of A Road Unforeseen Kurdistan has had a tumultuous history, and the women who lived there have experienced a life like no other. From Saddam Hussein's reign of terror beginning in the 1960s, to the fight against ISIS today, violence, revolution and questions around identity, agency, survival and resistance have been at the forefront of women's lives for decades. This book is a collection of these women's stories written in their own words. Each story reveals a tapestry of experiences, including political activism under Saddam and armed resistance in Rojava's PKK and YPG and Komala in Rojhalat. This is in addition to experiences of FGM and overcoming victimhood, life under extreme conservatism, as well as a look into the work of artists, poets, novelists and performers whose work represents a complicated relationship with Kurdistan. These rich and nuanced insights come from a group of women from a nation without a state, who are now scattered across the world. Collectively, they take the reader on a journey that will inspire feminist, anti-fascist and anti-racist people across the world.
Call Number: SMFA: HQ1726.5.Z75 A3 2021
Lawrence Abu Hamdan: Live Audio Essays by
An anthology of Abu Hamdan's disquieting audio-essay monologues on the soundscape of political life This volume compiles transcripts from performances and films by Beirut-based Lawrence Abu Hamdan (born 1985), an artist known for his political and cultural reflections on sound and listening. Taken from seven works dating from 2014 to 2022, Abu Hamdan's intricately crafted monologues are at times intimate, humorous and entertaining, yet politically disquieting in their revelations. Utilizing personal narratives, anecdotes, popular media and transcripts rooted in historic and contemporary moments, the artist leads the reader through his investigations into crimes that are heard but not seen. His live audio essays are an exercise in listening to acoustic memories, echoes of reincarnated lives, voices that leak through walls and borders, the drone of warfare, cinematic sound effects, atmospheric noise, the resonant frequencies of buildings and the sound of hunger. Collected here for the first time, all the texts were transcribed from performance documentation and edited with the artist.
Call Number: SMFA: NX573.6.L44 A28 2023- Lifta by Founded in 2018, LIFTA is a multidisciplinary platform that explores and interrogates the narratives, histories and issues of the Middle East and North Africa. Crafted by people of the region, our inaugural project is a book centred upon the theme of Future Palestine. Volume I features work from emerging and award-winning writers, poets, architects, curators, researchers and artists from Palestine and its diaspora.The content in the book is multilingual-as are our contributors-meaning we are publishing work written in Arabic, English and Spanish as a way to reflect the Palestinian communities around the world.The theme of Future Palestine is a step away from the past and present, from the limitations of current affairs, memory and rhetoric-a step towards intangible possibilities and impossibilities. It examines all the things that bind Palestine to Palestinians: time, land, exile, nationhoods, falsehoods, things lost, found and held onto, ideals of return, and for those that remained, ideals of exit. This brings forth the question: how much of history, reality and experience can we shed in the realm of the imaginary? Contributors responded by creating works that touch on an array of themes including mental health, sci-fi, architecture, archaeology, return, classism, gender issues, nationalism and more. All content in LIFTA is tailored to the theme and therefore the majority is new and unpublished. Throughout these pages, you will find doctrines of depth and disappointment, a log of what is feared, learned, yearned (for), glamorized, dejected and cut out.Call Number: SMFA: N7277 .L54 2020
Reflections by
Reflections: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa brings together an extraordinary collection of work from the British Museum for the first time. The contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa is rich and vibrant. Whether living in their countries of birth or in diaspora, the featured artists are part of the globalised world of art. Here we see artists responding to and making work about their present, histories, traditions and cultures, reflecting on a part of the world that has experienced extraordinary change in living memory.The British Museum has been acquiring the work of Middle Eastern and North African artists since the 1980s, and the collection - principally works on paper - is one of the most extensive in the public sphere. Collected within the context of a museum of history, the works offer insights into the nature of civil societies, the complex politics of the region, and cultural traditions in their broadest sense, from the relationship with Islamic art, to the deep engagement with literature.The introduction to the book by curator Venetia Porter explores the history of the collection and the works included. The essential framework for understanding the politics and context within which the artists are working is provided by Charles Tripp's essay. The works are grouped into seven chapters, each beginning with a short introduction. The authors explore the selection within themes such as faith, abstraction and the female gaze.
Call Number: SMFA: N7265 .P669 2020
Rolling Blackouts by
"Sarah Glidden's remarkable Rolling Blackouts adds a new twist to the [graphic journalism] form. Glidden accompanies a team of journalists through Syria and Iraq and her muted watercolours record not only the lives of people in war zones but the way the media interacts with them. Highly recommended."--The Guardian Cartoonist Sarah Glidden accompanies her two friends--reporters and founders of a journalism non-profit--as they research potential stories on the effects of the Iraq War on the Middle East and, specifically, the war's refugees. Joining the trio is a childhood friend and former Marine whose past service in Iraq adds an unexpected and sometimes unwelcome viewpoint, both to the people they come across and perhaps even themselves. As the crew works their way through Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, Glidden observes the reporters as they ask civilians, refugees, and officials, "Who are you?" Everyone has a story to tell: the Iranian blogger, the United Nations refugee administrator, a taxi driver, the Iraqi refugee deported from the US, the Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria, and even the American Marine. Glidden (How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less) records all that she encounters with a sympathetic and searching eye. Painted in her trademark soft, muted watercolors and written with a self-effacing humor, Rolling Blackouts cements Glidden's place as one of today's most original nonfiction voices.
Call Number: SMFA: PN6727.G64 R65 2016
Suad Al-Attar by
Suad Al-Attar is an extensively illustrated monograph featuring original photography of more than 100 expressive and surrealistic paintings and drawings by one of Iraq's most renowned artists. Written by the artist's granddaughter - writer and art historian Nesma Shubber - the book offers unique access to the career of a truly sensational artist and painter.
Call Number: SMFA: ND969.A48 S58 2022
Taking Shape by
"'Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s' investigates the development of abstraction in West Asia and North Africa via paintings, sculpture, and drawings made during a period of rapid industrialization, several wars and mass migrations, new state formations, and the rise and fall of Arab nationalism(s). Examining how a diverse group of artists mined the region's rich artistic heritage as well as the expressive capacities of line, color, and texture, this book highlights various abstract practices that arose in the Arab world and its diaspora in the mid-20th century. Alongside vibrant images of nearly ninety works--all drawn from the remarkable collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, based in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates--'Taking Shape' featuers nine essays by leading scholars who are rethinking art-historical canons and expanding discourses around global modernism." --publisher's description, lower cover
"Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s explores the development of abstraction in the Arab world via paintings, sculpture, and works on paper dating from the 1950s through the 1980s. By looking critically at the history and historiography of mid-20th century abstraction, the exhibition considers art from North Africa and West Asia as integral to the discourse on global modernism. At its heart, the project raises a fundamental art historical question: How do we study abstraction across different contexts and what models of analysis do we use? Examining how and why artists investigated the expressive capacities of line, color, and texture, Taking Shape highlights a number of abstract movements that developed in the Middle East, North Africa, and West Asia, as well as the Arab diaspora."--Artsy website (accessed 18/2/20)
Call Number: SMFA: N7265.3 .T35 2020
Uncommon Grounds by
In this groundbreaking book, a range of internationally renowned and emerging academics, writers, artists, curators, activists and filmmakers critically reflect on the ways in which visual culture has appropriated and developed new media across North Africa and the Middle East. Examining the opportunities presented by the real-time generation of new, relatively unregulated content online, Uncommon Grounds evaluates the prominent role that new media has come to play in artistic practices - and social movements - in the Arab world today. Analysing alternative forms of creating, broadcasting, publishing, distributing and consuming digital images, this book also enquires into a broader global concern: does new media offer a 'democratisation' of - and a productive engagement with - visual culture, or merely capitalise upon the effect of immediacy at the expense of depth?Featuring full-colour artists' inserts, this is the first book to extensively explore the degree to which the grassroots popularity of Twitter and Facebook has been co-opted into mainstream media, institutional and curatorial characterisations of 'revolution' - and whether artists should be wary of perpetuating the rhetoric and spectacle surrounding political events. In the process, Uncommon Grounds reveals how contemporary art practices actively negotiate present-day notions of community-based activism, artistic agency and political engagement.
Call Number: SMFA & Tisch: N7265.3 .U53 2014
View from the Inside by
View From Inside is an expansive presentation of contemporary Arab photography, video, and mixed media art from the Middle East and North Africa. The book shows the works of 49 leading Arab artists from 13 different countries. The works reflect the emergence of photographic, video and digital art as important forms of creative visual expression in the Arab world since the 1990s. The artworks address a broad range of issues that the artists themselves have defined as important to the modern Arab experience. Four texts cover the early appearance of photography in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-nineteenth century through photography's evolution as an integral part of the contemporary Arab art world: The author of the lead essay on contemporary photographic art is the pioneering curator and expert on classical Islamic art and contemporary Arab art, Karin Adrian von Roques. Ms. von Roques has worked in the Middle East for more than twenty years, bringing important contemporary Arab art to museum audiences in Europe, Asia and the United States. Essays on the history of Arab photographic expression have been written by Samer Mohdad, a well-known Lebanese photographer, writer and co-founder of the Fondation Arabe pour l'Image in Beirut. Dr. Claude W. Sui, Senior Curator of the Forum International of Photography at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, Germany and curator of exhibitions on nineteenth century photography in Arabia including To the Holy Lands: Mecca and Medina to Jerusalem. Mona Khazindar, Director General of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris looks at the development on the history of modern Arab photography and its relationship to contemporary art. Wendy Watriss, Senior Curator and Artistic Director for FotoFest International provides the philosophical overview of the book in her introduction.
Call Number: SMFA: TR646.A65 W37 2014
What the ladies have to say : activists in Palestine, Indonesia, and the Philippines by
Extensive interviews with female activists detailing the way that U.S. imperialism has personally affected them as well as destabilizing their countries. An incredible resource providing unique perspective and insight on international struggles for solidarity with women, prisoners and other oppressed populations.
Call Number: SMFA Library Zine Collection ; Z286.Z54 T355 2019
