Punk Orientalism
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MacKenzie Art Gallery 3475 Albert St, T C Douglas Building (corner of Albert St & 23rd Ave), Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 6X6
The artists in Punk Orientalism challenge outdated perceptions about the geography, territory, and personal and political identities of those living in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iran and the Middle East and their International diasporas. Long seen either as societies subsumed by the former Soviet Union, or serving as its client states, the exhibition uses the theme of non-conformity—the “punk” rejection of state authority—to investigate and explore a changing society and its evolving norms in the post-Soviet period. Through works in photography, video, sculpture and installation pieces, text-based art, and other new media, the exhibition demonstrates how these artists create or engage with approaches to modernism that is rooted in the customs and cultures of the region or draw on both Soviet and “Oriental” influences. In particular, given the wide range of countries and cultures swept up by the former Soviet Union, the show explores the concept of one East looking at another East.
One thematic component at play in many of these works is a wry sense of humour, essential to any critique of institutional authority, particularly in an authoritarian context. For example, the artist collective “Slavs and Tatars” incorporates humour alongside geopolitics, as in their mixed-media sculpture Kitab Kebab (Sarmats and Tsars) (2013), which shows a literal skewering of different books from cultures around the world.
Another essential component to these works is the use of bricolage or bringing together different discarded materials in a collage-style format that creates something entirely new. Aikaterini Gegisian’s works use this method, creating what the artist calls “photographic ready-mades”, drawing on separate and unrelated images that convey a different meaning when linked. Gegisian’s Falling Tight I (2014), showing what may be a ballet dancer or circus performer’s arm linked to a rocket launchpad by the water, ties together the enforced veneration for the “space race” with the idea of human performance and control. Rokni Haerizadeh uses this approach, too, with the series Subversive Salami in a Ragged Briefcase (2013-2014), adding distorted, rebellious figures onto staid landscapes or streetscapes that explores ideas around protest and resistance.
Critiques of power, an essential element of a punk aesthetic, are embedded in works such as the site-specific installation by Uzbek-born Vyacheslav Akhunov whose constructive style embraces both Cyrillic and Oriental mantras as a form of protest against Soviet instated strictures leading up to the Afghan invasion of 1979. As exemplified in the large-scale work “Breathe Quietly” (1976-2018) a sequence of eight large scale Cyrillic characters made from plywood that serve as a monument to the artist’s long-time struggle with state and authority.
“Punk Orientalism presents artists who work addresses issues of colonialism and Soviet imperialism, revealing new avenues into history and geopolitics that are timely and relevant to understanding the current social and political climate,” said Sara Raza, the exhibition’s curator. “Bringing together an array of critical voices that slice through oversimplified narratives of history and place, these artists also speak to the wider influence of the former Soviet Union in Iran and parts of the Arab world, to shape a different understanding of the ‘East.’”
In addition to the exhibition, there will be many opportunities for visitors to learn about and experience these works through study, reflection and dialogue, including: a curator-led tour of the exhibition, English, French and Russian language tours and conversations, an Educator workshop, and a rotating series of artist films in the Gallery’s Shumiatcher Theatre.