Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
March Meeting 2013
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
Dr. Amal Nasr
Visuals
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
March Meeting 2013
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
Dr. Woodman Taylor
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
March Meeting 2013
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
Dr. Woodman Taylor
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
March Meeting 2013
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
Omar Kholeif
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
March Meeting 2013
Addressing representations: redefining global and local perspectives
Omar Kholeif
Reactivating Majlis Dialogues Dr. Woodman Taylor (Associate Professor of Art History, American University in Dubai, UAE)
In his presentation Professor Woodman Taylor will discuss how the Emirati tradition of majlis gatherings may be activated to generate local meanings for contemporary arts. Cued by Yuko Hasegawa’s curatorial concept, which draws inspiration from the notion of the ‘courtyard’, Taylor also considers the interior spaces of Emirati houses, where majalis took place. Taylor will propose that although spaces certainly inform the activity that takes place within them, it is the discursive inter-subjective activity between participants in majlis gatherings where meanings get renewed, recombined or negotiated anew.
Woodman Taylor’s interdisciplinary scholarship revolves around the performative practices of visual and musical cultures. He received his doctoral and master’s degrees in Art History from the University of Chicago, USA. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Asian History and Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA. He has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India. Dr. Taylor has served as a curator of Islamic and Indian art, first at the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and more recently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. Dr. Taylor now teaches Art History and Ethnomusicology at the American University in Dubai, UAE, where he is also founding convenor of the AUD Visual Cultures Forum. Dr. Taylor has held research fellowships from the J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, USA, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA, and has thrice been a Fulbright Scholar.
Is Artists’ Independence Being Subsumed by the Politics of the Square? Omar Kholeif (Senior Editor and Curator, Ibraaz, UK)
In this presentation, Omar Kholeif focuses on how the visual representations of The Square – in the news, on RSS feeds, and in visual culture - has begun to subsume the individuality of the artist operating in North Africa and the Middle East. This presentation takes as its main case study the visual representation of Cairo’s Tahrir Square and seeks to consider it as one uniform body and the mass of people as one insurmountable piece of human flesh. Kholeif will seek to elucidate how visual representations of the ‘square’ can develop a ‘singular’ and all encompassing narrative of a culture subsumed by political conflict. His goal is to discuss the pitfalls of this visual representation and to create both theoretical and ideological openings to transcend this hermetically sealed framework.
Omar Kholeif is an Egyptian-born, UK-based curator, writer and editor. He holds degrees from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and the Royal College of Art, London. Most recently he spent three and a half years as Curator at FACT, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool, UK, where he commissioned over a dozen major artworks and curated exhibitions, residencies, public programmes and publications. Kholeif continues as FACT’s Senior Curatorial Associate, advising on all elements of its exhibitions programme. Kholeif is Visiting Curator at Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK, where he recently organised and curated a major exhibition entitled, Subversion (2012). He is also Curator of The Arab British Centre London, and founding Director of the UK’s Arab Film Festival. He is a Curator for the Abandon Normal Devices Festival (Liverpool and Manchester), a cultural Olympiad project, a contributing curator to the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art and has curated events and programmes at the ICA, London, Whitechapel Gallery, London, and The International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands), among many others. Kholeif writes for the international press and is a Co-Founding Editor of Portal 9, the only bi-lingual (Arabic/English) journal of art, literature, and architecture, published in Beirut, Lebanon. He is Senior Editor of Ibraaz, the leading platform for commissioning writing, research, and artist projects on visual culture in North Africa and the Middle East. In 2013, he will also direct the residency and media programme for SPACE and its new cultural centre, The White Building, London.
Contemporary Identities and a New Approach to the Concept of Globalisation Dr. Amal Nasr (Artist/Critic, and Professor/Head of Photography Department, Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University, Egypt)
Amal Nasr’s study is concerned with the search for a new approach to the concept of globalisation, especially in relation to art, culture and freedom. Nasr will trace the development of this originally ‘Western’ notion, and will discuss the impact it has had on art, where the idea of ‘spacelessness’ prevails and where various identities can intersect.
Amal Nasr is a Professor in and Head of the Department of Photography, Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University, in Egypt. She is also a photographer and a critic. Her work has been exhibited in 14 solo exhibitions in Egypt and abroad. Nasr is also a member of several art associations and has served on the juries for many artistic and critical contests. She has represented Egypt in many international exhibitions and events in Italy, France, China, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Yemen and the UK. Nasr has participated in international conferences and meetings in the Arab world and written numerous books and articles. She is the winner of several awards including Egypt’s Youth Salon Award for painting in 1990 and for photography in 1993, the State Creativity Award in 1998 and the State Incentive Award in plastic art criticism in 2011.