Yousef AlMslmani, Saudi male artist, was born and raised in Hail; the natural beauty of its landscapes amazed him. This inspired his desire to pursue photography and surreal Photoshop effects when he stated back in 2003. Teaching art at schools in Hail did not stop Yousef from joining exhibitions and exposing his photographs. Yousef AlMslmani. (n.d.). Shaweesh is another Saudi male artist based in Riyadh. He began creating art in 2009 with graffiti art, and expanded his expertise to digital art street and pop art. Shaweesh pursues US pop culture and classic Arabic themes of art. He has 5 years of experience creating digital art, typography, and graffiti. Nihal, M. (2013). The Saudi man in the “Arab and Camel” artwork represents the lower class status with its harsh living conditions that the government deemed acceptable. The woman in the artwork “Attar” represents the struggles and hardship presented by society’s acceptance. Both artworks show persons from struggling communities, nevertheless they are content with their situations.
Both these artworks show similar conceptual ideas behind them. I believe the man’s raggedy old clothes in the “Arab and Camel” artwork implies that he is of low status; that means that he has no freedom over his life choices because he is a laborer as a patron for camels in Saudi Arabia. I think that because a person with a higher status would not have raggedy clothes. I believe that the woman’s hijab wear in “Attar” suggests that she is struggling with social acceptance. the 19-year-old, who wore a white head cover, a long sleeved green top and black leggings and sported luminous green running spikes, joined the 2012 Olympic stadium and trailed in last of the eight runners. Some conservative Sa...
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...rtwork shows that in the man’s harsh life and he accepts his lack of freedom because he can’t change that fact. The artwork “Attar” shows that in the woman’s struggle with society’s acceptance and she accepts her lack of freedom because she wants to do what she is passionate about.
Works Cited
About Yousef AlMslmani. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2013, from: http://o2-photo.net/site/biography.html Nihal, M. (2013,July 24th). Introducing Shaweesh. Saudi Gazette. Retrieved March 12,2014 from: http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130725174672
Palmer, J.(2012,August 8th). London 2012: Sarah Attar becomes Saudi Arabia's first female track Olympian. The Independent. Retrieved March 17, 2014 from http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/athletics/london-2012-sarah-attar-becomes-saudi-arabias-first-female-track-olympian-8022201.html
Through these events, islamic themes are displayed by Salih, but they are shown in many different ways. In this miraculous representation of a Sudanese town, two individuals bring together and resemble the Islamic religion in two opposing ways. By describing
Also, since it’s hard for the viewer to see any emotion the women are feeling in either painting by looking at their faces, the two painters appear to have used colors to create the tone. The feeling of gloom that surrounds the two women on a wharf with the color suggests that they have not found what they have been looking for so their sorrow will last a little longer. The kneeling woman has a brighter background probably depicting that she has found solace or love where she currently kneels. Between the two paintings, the kneeling woman seems to have a brighter looking future ahead of her.
Hammond, A. (2005). Pop culture Arab world! media, arts, and lifestyle. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.
The picture uses clear racially and religiously defined people with lots of space blank in between the two women to represent the disconnect between them. This visual represents how different people can use trivial factors in defining others as weird or wrong and how people can create culture clash by being close-minded. The American woman clearly holds the opinion that Muslim women having to cover themselves up is while she is allowed to show almost all of her body without shame is oppressive and wrong. The woman is very obviously white, making it easy for the reader to assume that she is probably American. This distinction is important because the difference in race and background is what makes this difference in beliefs and customs clash so harshly. Similarly to how the American views Islamic culture as male-dominated due to women’s requirement to be covered, the Muslim woman views the American society as male-dominated because she feels that the American woman must show off her body to appeal to men. In accordance with her culture, she finds that necessity to lack modesty morally wrong. This difference between immodest and modest dressing creates a clash in between these two cultures’ views. However, at the core of each of their views was the idea that male-dominated societies are oppressive to women. If both women tried to understand the
Shirin Neshat is a filmmaker and photographer. She was born on march 26, 1957 in Qazvin, Iran. Because of the westernization in her family, her parents sent her to America for college. Shirin’s career of artist began after she came to America. She got her bachelor of arts and master of fine arts from University of California Berkeley. In 1990, she returned to Iran and was shocked by the change of society due to the Islamic revolution and the war between Iran and Iraq (Sheybani 1). The style and characteristics of her photographs and video installations also were inspired by her journey to Iran, which focus on contemporary Islamic cultures, women’s identity and women’s right in Islamic society (1).
The American black civil rights movement, a social movement in the United States, with the purpose of ending racial segregation against African Americans (Gary Younge, 2013). This movement paved the way for many politically motivated artists in the 20th century, which led to the beginning of the black arts movement, which still to this date, continues to inspire artists whom are not treated equally during their day to day lives. While the Civil rights movement, involved major protests in cities around the country, the black arts movement focused on inspiring artists to stand up for themselves through their art and created a
...es Art an inner power struggle. Subsequently, Art becomes resentful. Art’s resentment towards Vladek does not allow him to emotionally mature. Yet through writing Art forgives his father and becomes a man.
While the medium of calligraphy has commonly been ink on paper, contemporary artists continuously stretch and challenge the boundaries this traditional art. Two artists in particular represent such efforts to provide new shape and life to calligraphy: Hassan Massoudy and Mattar bin Lahej. Transforming calligraphy from a static art, Iraqi artist Hassan Massoudy introduces theatrically-inspired form and movement to his letters, while Emirati artist Mattar bin Lahej transitions calligraphy to the third dimension by his sculptures. Despite the visual differences between these two artists’ works, both reflect to re-explore the expressive capacities of the word.
The omnipresence of the American and European culture in the countries of the Middle East is a universally recognized phenomenon. The culture, thoughts and status quo of the people have been and continually are being changed and challenged due the mass spread of American goods and ideas. The American national culture largely revolves around the wants, needs and goals of the individual. As the one of the greatest superpowers of the time, its influence on the global community towards the focus on the individual is nothing short of inevitable. The movies, clothing and new age mentality of America are sending all people regardless of age, upbringing and locale, into a grand scale social transition. The Arabs and Muslims beliefs, traditions and entire state of being are no longer as they were 20 or 30 years ago. The women of the novels, Nadia, Fatima, Umm Saad, Maha, Asya, and Su’ad, each living in various Arab countries with unique situations of their own, all are united on the common ground of American introduced idea and concepts of individualism through such venues as feminism, capitalism, sexism and consumerism which adversely affect their society.
These cultural strictures come in a number of forms. First, the artist attacks intellectual conformity, choosing art over all other means of self-expression even though it is not widespread in his or her society. Though it is not explicitly stated - and is perhaps even subconscious - the artist chooses art over either academe or high society. The artist questions society's customs, making this choice explicit in their daily actions. The artist rejects ostentatious displays of wealth and the cultural emphasis on money, replacing it with a frugal simplicity more conducive to authentic experience. Finally, the artist calls into question the cultural construct most important to any understanding of human interaction - the binary conception of gender.
The narratives in the work speak to the racial and social inequalities in America in the nineties. This deep concern with the coloured experience and the struggle for civil rights is seen in the images and sculptures she creates. Especially of women, as she lived through a time of widespread segregation, so her work was created from the place she knew most intimately.
...p from the world they live in, a world of separation and indicate themselves with their own realities. Art is handed over into society’s hands, as in one movement it is suggested - to fixate what is real, live like you create and create like you live; in other – abandon media’s proposed ideas and take the leadership of life in our own hands.
When walking around a city, you may notice that the architecture and art look similar to other works. Many of these designs have changed along the course of history and time whilst others have not. The designs that many people still see in society and day to day living is from two of the many cultures of the old civilizations, Roman and Islamic. The art and architecture forms from the Islamic and Roman cultures have many comparisons and contrasts between them. They, the Islamic and Roman nations, have both adopted from other cultures and have made their own discoveries in the art and architecture worlds. The Roman and Islamic architecture and art vary drastically from each other and yet have varying comparisons between the two.
In a review written by Mayowa Adeniyi, Faith, Fashion, Fusion has allowed Muslim women to show Australia that the hijab is not at all oppressive, and despite the limitations to what they can wear, it should not imply a ‘lack of style.’ (2013). In another review for Omniloquence, PhD candidate, Petra Mosmann claims that the exhibition “successfully challenges the public’s preconception of how Muslim women can dress”, however “liberation and oppression depends on the garments use, rather than its design” (2014). Apart from clothing’s’ use, it can be said that liberation and oppression are also dependent on the actions and behaviours of the person wearing the garment. Despite Faith, Fashion, Fusion’s, success in breaking the stereotypes through their display’s of fashionable and personalised dress, the use of non-Muslim women as models leaves room to question their apparent “non-oppressive life”. Founder of Hijab House, Tarik Houchar, claims that as a Muslim man, he finds it ‘unacceptable’ to use Muslim women as models for fashion shoots. This may have not been such a problem if the exhibition was to also address Muslim men’s clothing, which also has some limitations, although not as many as Muslim women. (Mosmann,
They both have symbolism that is linked back to the Japanese culture, fig 1 has the red circle which is also on the Japanese flag and fig 2 has something hanging in the background with Japanese writing on it, these are both subtle features about Yamamoto’s work that clearly link his culture into his art. Both images involve a very limited and muted colour palette with red and orange being a main pop of colour used in both. There is a clear use of contrast with a lot of light to dark tones place within a close range of each other. Although the lines are thin there are plenty of them creating a lot of detail within each of the painted objects. Each of the female subjects have similar facial expressions on their face and all look away as if they have given in or submitted to whatever put them there, they all look defeated and yet still portrayed as effortlessly beautiful. I think that Yamamoto uses imperialism to extend Japanese culture through his art by using sex to gain power and influence others. I feel that this type of art is slightly corrupt as it almost glamourizes abuse and makes it as if it’s okay, it is sexualizing women and when looking at this I can’t help but think about the male gaze. This art could also be linked to how women are/were mistreated in Japanese culture. I feel that through my research I came across many different Japanese artists that seem to have a connection with power in their work, I’m unsure if this is supposed to relate to breaking free from the stereotypes that the western world has quite clearly placed them in or if it is them trying to break free from their own culture and the stereotype’s that remain within that alone. What I can say is there is definitely movement and change on the rise and in today’s modern society anything is