Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

An abundantly illustrated look at how queerness is performed within artistic practice

Premodern archives from the Middle East show rich and diverse homoerotic worlds that were disrupted by the colonial imposition of Western models of sexuality. Andrew Gayed traces how contemporary Arab and Middle Eastern diasporic artists have remembered and reinvented these historical ways of being in their work in order to imagine a different present. Building on global art histories and transnational queer theory, Queer World Making illuminates contemporary understandings of queer sexuality in the Middle Eastern diaspora. The author focuses on the visual works of artists who create political art about queer identity, including Jamil Hellu, Ebrin Bagheri, 2Fik, Laurence Rasti, Nilbar Güres, and Alireza Shojaian.

Through engaging with these artists, Gayed is seeking to articulate a Western and non-Western modernity that works beyond the dichotomy of sexual oppression, stereotypically associated with the Middle East, versus sexual acceptance, attributed to North American norms. Instead, Gayed traces how diasporic subjects create coming-out narratives and identities that provide alternatives to inscribed Western models. Queer World Making reframes Arab homosexualities in terms of desire and alternative gender norms rather than through Western notions of visibility and coming out, narratives that are not conducive to understanding how queer Arabs living in the West experience their sexuality.

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Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

An abundantly illustrated look at how queerness is performed within artistic practice

Premodern archives from the Middle East show rich and diverse homoerotic worlds that were disrupted by the colonial imposition of Western models of sexuality. Andrew Gayed traces how contemporary Arab and Middle Eastern diasporic artists have remembered and reinvented these historical ways of being in their work in order to imagine a different present. Building on global art histories and transnational queer theory, Queer World Making illuminates contemporary understandings of queer sexuality in the Middle Eastern diaspora. The author focuses on the visual works of artists who create political art about queer identity, including Jamil Hellu, Ebrin Bagheri, 2Fik, Laurence Rasti, Nilbar Güres, and Alireza Shojaian.

Through engaging with these artists, Gayed is seeking to articulate a Western and non-Western modernity that works beyond the dichotomy of sexual oppression, stereotypically associated with the Middle East, versus sexual acceptance, attributed to North American norms. Instead, Gayed traces how diasporic subjects create coming-out narratives and identities that provide alternatives to inscribed Western models. Queer World Making reframes Arab homosexualities in terms of desire and alternative gender norms rather than through Western notions of visibility and coming out, narratives that are not conducive to understanding how queer Arabs living in the West experience their sexuality.

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Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

Queer World Making: Contemporary Middle Eastern Diasporic Art

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Overview

An abundantly illustrated look at how queerness is performed within artistic practice

Premodern archives from the Middle East show rich and diverse homoerotic worlds that were disrupted by the colonial imposition of Western models of sexuality. Andrew Gayed traces how contemporary Arab and Middle Eastern diasporic artists have remembered and reinvented these historical ways of being in their work in order to imagine a different present. Building on global art histories and transnational queer theory, Queer World Making illuminates contemporary understandings of queer sexuality in the Middle Eastern diaspora. The author focuses on the visual works of artists who create political art about queer identity, including Jamil Hellu, Ebrin Bagheri, 2Fik, Laurence Rasti, Nilbar Güres, and Alireza Shojaian.

Through engaging with these artists, Gayed is seeking to articulate a Western and non-Western modernity that works beyond the dichotomy of sexual oppression, stereotypically associated with the Middle East, versus sexual acceptance, attributed to North American norms. Instead, Gayed traces how diasporic subjects create coming-out narratives and identities that provide alternatives to inscribed Western models. Queer World Making reframes Arab homosexualities in terms of desire and alternative gender norms rather than through Western notions of visibility and coming out, narratives that are not conducive to understanding how queer Arabs living in the West experience their sexuality.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295752303
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 03/26/2024
Series: Critical Ethnic Studies and Visual Culture
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 324
File size: 85 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Andrew Gayed is assistant professor of art history and visual culture at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU).


Andrew Gayed is assistant professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. His work has been published in Photography and Culture, Journal for Studies in Art Education, and the Journal of Anthropology of Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia.
Laura Kina is professor of art, critical ethnic studies, and global Asian studies at DePaul University. She is the coeditor of Queering Contemporary Asian American Art (University of Washington Press, 2017) and War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art (University of Washington Press, 2013).

What People are Saying About This

Gayatri Gopinath

"A landmark achievement that counters both Islamophobia and homophobia to explore with great care and nuance queer visual art from the SWANA diaspora. This is indispensable and paradigm-shifting work that makes a crucial contribution to art history, queer studies, and diaspora studies. This is the book I have been waiting for."

Alpesh Kantilal Patel

"A groundbreaking and original intervention that contributes to the fields of art history, visual culture, and queer studies."

Stephen Sheehi

"Elegantly decenters Euro-normative queer ways of being by centering the work of queer diasporic artists in North America and Europe—whose media span from photography to multidisciplinary installations to ink and paper drawing. This major contribution to multiple fields introduces us to artists such as Jamil Hellu, Alireza Shojaian, and Nilbar Güreş. At the same time, Gayed’s complex and sophisticated scholarship, analysis and auto theory introduce us to ‘sexual scripts and codes of desire’ that allude to the colonial epistemicide in order to forge queer diasporic and MENA life-worlds."

Jarrod Hayes

"This remarkably interdisciplinary work on queer art from Middle Eastern and North African diasporas departs from auto-theory to make a crucial contribution to transnational queer studies. Through his own strategy of 'queering locally' and Piotr Piotrowski's concept of 'horizontal art histories,' Gayed articulates very practical strategies for decolonizing the discipline of art history."

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