THE SUBLIME IN CONTEMPORARY ART AND POLITICS: “The post-9/11 Art of the Middle Eastern Diaspora in North America” TALAT BALCA ARDA GUNEY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO April 2016 © Talat Balca Arda Guney, 2016 Abstract The Sublime in Contemporary Art and Politics: The post-9/11 Art of the Middle Eastern Diaspora in North America This dissertation takes ethnographic approach to researching art with an emphasis on the artistic practices of Middle Eastern diasporic artists in Canada and the USA. This dissertation moves from an account of aesthetic theory to the revival of public interest in art related to the Middle East and the artistic challenges faced by diasporic artists from the Middle East in presenting depictions of their own subjectivity. The Arab Spring, revolutions, bloody protests and riots, as well as the attacks of radical Islamist groups have crowded mainstream news coverage with images of terror and the paradigm of radical destruction. Such reflections of horrific scenery emulate the aesthetics of the sublime in the imagination of contemporary politics. The increasing body of art emphasizing the region of the Middle East has also regenerated this mainstream media focus on the Middle East, Arab lands, and the “Muslim landscape" with the same connotation of sublimity. I argue that these artistic reflections presume a particular Middle Eastern diasporic subjectivity that comes into visibility simultaneously as the translator and the witness, as well as the victim or perpetrator of this catastrophic imagery of the Middle East. I explore the artistic practices of the Middle Eastern diaspora in order to understand how they reflect their own self-image in the contemporary art scene to challenge this stereotype of the “disaster carrier”. I also investigate the novel ways in which the new social movements in the Middle East, such as the Green Movement in Iran or the various Arab Springs, are represented by the art works of critical diasporic artists living in North America and how such representations settle within the landscape of contemporary art. In this study, I consider two major subject matters that are present within diasporic artworks related to Middle East: the artistic representations of home countries and the current socio-political landscape; and the self- ii design art practices enacted through memories of immigration, performances of body and religiosity in the North American art scene. Rather than an analysis of hegemony, this dissertation analyzes how these art trends claim to be artistically valuable and aim to reach a wide audience, as well as what kinds of artistic desires they evoke. Drawing on critical studies of democratic process and social equity, this book contributes to aesthetic theory on contemporary art and puts forward questions concerning whether or not the oppositional capacity of contemporary art has withered away in neoliberal democracies. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of my father, Tevfik Seno Arda, professor of civil engineering in steel construction, who taught me the love of art. iv Acknowledgments A particular debt of gratitude is owned to Johannah May Black and K. Murat Guney for inspiration and mentorship as well as for encouragement, advice and friendship. Johannah, my true friend and PhD fellow, brilliant thinker and advocate of social justice, not only edited my first draft of dissertation but navigated me through artistic environments in Toronto and beyond during my research. Her willingness to comment on drafts of my chapters has been incredibly helpful and her patience in this task is deeply appreciated. Murat, my partner in all of the challenges that I got into in my life from the early years of undergraduate studies, is an excellent critic and skillful social analyst. Conversations with him about the issues dealt with in this study have been invaluable in the process of planning and compiling it. Without them, this dissertation could have never come out. I offer my sincere thanks to all the artists participating to this research for their time, passion and expertise. I am very lucky to have encountered so many outstanding artists working on so many fantastic works of art. Coming to know Canada and the US through their artistic sensibilities was the best experience that an international student can have. I learnt so much, not only on the topics of my research, but also about myself. I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair, Professor Nergis Canefe, who has continually and convincingly conveyed a spirit of adventure in regard to research and scholarship. Without her guidance and persistent help this dissertation would not have been possible. Thank you to my jury members Professor Robert Latham and Professor Scott Forsyth for their insightful comments and critiques. I would like to thank Professor Stephen Newman for triggering the motivation needed to teach political theory and for supporting me during my fresh international PhD student years as his teaching assistant in the political science department at York v University. Marlene Quesenberry has been an indispensable help throughout much of this PhD process, I am grateful for her support. Financial support for travel during my fieldwork was provided by York University Research and Fieldwork Fellowship granted by the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS). I am also thankful to Köpük for providing me the peace of mind that I needed in writing this dissertation while she was sleeping, grooming and meowing on the table next to my laptop. vi Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ ix An Introduction: The Contemporary Art of the Middle Eastern Diaspora and the Politics of Terror .............................................................................................................................................. 1 Conceptualization ...................................................................................................................... 10 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 12 Chapter Outline ......................................................................................................................... 15 1. CONTEMPORARY ART AND IDENTITY ........................................................................ 18 The Sublime of Contemporary Art: Self-Loss and Multiculturalism ....................................... 19 The Sublimity of the “Middle Eastern” Subject Matter in the Age of Terror ........................... 27 The “New” in Contemporary Art: On the Emergence of Local Informant Art and the Popularity of Ethnically, Racially and Culturally Marked Diasporic Artists ........................... 43 Critiquing Ethnically, Culturally and Racially Marked Art ...................................................... 48 Local Informant Artists and the Case of “Middle Eastern” or “Muslim” Connotative Art ...... 58 2. EXHIBITING THE MIDDLE EAST IN NORTH AMERICA ............................................ 64 The Revival of Interest in “Middle Eastern” Art ...................................................................... 64 Exhibiting The “Middle East” in North America...................................................................... 71 Is it possible to create art following the socio-political disasters in the Middle East? ............. 74 The Birth of Hyper-Realist Tragedy ......................................................................................... 82 The Practice of Hyper-Realist Tragedy to Depict the Middle East ........................................... 86 Hyper-Tragic Image from the “Middle East” ........................................................................... 90 Middle Eastern Cinema of the Hyper-Tragedy Era ................................................................ 110 a) Classical Hyper-Realist Tragedy .................................................................................. 111 b) Hyper-Realist Tragedy of Mixed Genre....................................................................... 123 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 136 3. SUBLIME IN SELFIE ART OF MIDDLE EASTERN DIASPORA ................................. 141 Selfie Art: Artistic Performances of Self-Image Making ........................................................ 142 a) The Relation amongst the Artist, the Artist’s Artwork and the Spectator in Contemporary Art and Its Sublimity ................................................................................... 142 vii b) Self-Image Making of the Middle Eastern Diaspora ................................................... 146 c) The Stranger