Journal

No Place Like Home

by John L Tran | Journal: Presentation | Fri, 14/10/2011 - 20:01
No Place Like Home

Over time any cultural difference can be assimilated if there is a material advantage in doing so.

Shame of the memory of this material gain requires the development and application of a suitable spiritual, cultural or mythical narrative.

The structure of this intervention can be determined either through the steady repetition and adaptation of certain behaviour, or through the manipulation of cultural signifiers by groups with vested interests.

I am not myself

by Buthayna Ali | Journal: Perspective | Fri, 30/03/2012 - 16:32

I am not myself, not Buthayna Ali, not a body, not a woman, not a Muslim, not a Syrian, not an Arab...
many prisons forces itself upon me.
They are combined in me, melting me, turning me into hard and fluid forms.
Hard to defend my existence, while fluid to escape, through my work, away from those jails.

Innovation Through Tradition

by Janet Radi | Journal: Presentation | Mon, 03/10/2011 - 01:31
Innovation Through Tradition

It is perhaps a somewhat cliched statement to begin this introduction to the work of the internationally recognised Iranian artist Sadegh Tirafkan, by saying that he is very much a product of his circumstances, both on an international and an individual level, but this is clearly what informs his art. For Sadegh is the epitome of an Iranian artist whose innovative and utterly contemporary works are profoundly influenced by the legacy of his traditional Iranian heritage roots.

Second hand culture

by Chingiz | Journal: Perspective | Tue, 10/04/2012 - 20:56

As we know there are different directions and ways of artistic expression accepted in the world culture. When we say “Contemporary Culture” it means pieces of art connected to current time which reflects in itself historical, political, social, psychological and other issues.

Culture of each period is considered contemporary for current space and time. Thereby culture itself depends and connects on factors stated above. The culture of any space and time should reflect qualities of this space and time in the world context. Thereby the author is fixing these qualities in own art piece where the art piece has to be considered not only as a piece of art but also visual and mental document left in history.

Unlikely savages

by Carla María Macchiavello | Journal: Essay | Mon, 03/10/2011 - 01:33
Unlikely savages

The savage has been an image closely related to the history and representations of Latin America. This essay discusses varied artistic reinterpretations of the savage paradigm and the ideologies of domination and violence that support it. Though savagery seems to have changed forms, leaving the colonial world behind to reemerge as extreme violence often associated in Latin America with political questions, oppressive regimes, revolutionaries, and more recently drugs, the term is still deeply enmeshed with battles of dominion and representation involving many actors. The works analyzed address in either direct or veiled ways some of the convoluted relations between the so-called first and third worlds, alluding to everyday realities and imaginary ones through an extended notion of savagery.