Publisher Description

Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion states of the USSR. The theme of non-conformity and the punk rejection of state authority is a continuous thread throughout the book, which highlights changing and divided societies and their evolving norms in the post-Soviet period.Inspired by the titular concepts, punk and orientalism, the text functions as a form of bricolage, uniting punk movements and strategies, which can be traced in popular visual culture from the 1970s onwards. The idea of punk is coupled with a critical study of orientalism and its historical association with imperialist assumptions of knowledge concerning the East. Punk Orientalism expands its association with this territory to explore former Soviet possessions in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as looking at the USSR's complex relationship with the Arab world, Iran and Turkey.Thematically organised, Punk Orientalism presents a thoroughly researched and fascinating selection of contemporary art from a complex and multifaceted part of the globe, featuring diverse artists such as Lida Abdul, Babi Badalov, Ergin Çavusoglu, Taus Makhacheva and Erbossyn Meldibekov who have challenged state and academic policies, mapped new territories, and formed new artistic movements. Punk Orientalism examines history as a conduit for revisionist thinking and rebellion, appealing to those readers interested in revolutionary practices in contemporary art. This thought-provoking book highlights breaking free from the entrapment of imperialism and shines a light on one of the most under-researched regions in the contemporary art world.

Author Biography

Sara Raza is an award-winning contemporary art curator and writer based in New York City, where she founded the curatorial studio Punk Orientalism, which specialises in global art and visual cultures, mainly from Central and Western Asia and its international diaspora. Currently, Sara is the 2021–2022 awardee of the Red Burns Fellowship by the New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Programme, and a member of the faculty at the School of Visual Arts for the MA Curatorial Practice Programme. Between 2015–2018, she was the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator of Middle Eastern and North African art in New York where she built the collection and organised the acclaimed exhibition But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise, which debuted in the capital in 2016, later travelling to the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan in 2018. Alongside this, Sara has curated numerous other exhibitions for international museums, biennials and festivals, including the Rubin Museum of Art, New York; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; the 55th Venice and Tashkent Biennials; and the 3rd Baku Public Art Festival, among others. Sara has also been the Head of Education and Public Programs at YARAT, Baku, Azerbaijan; Founding Curator at Alaan Art Space, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Curator of Public Programmes at Tate Modern, London. Sara has written for numerous artist monographs, books, catalogues and publications, and is the West and Central Asia Desk Editor for ArtAsiaPacific magazine. In 2016, she was the recipient of the 11th ArtTable New Leadership Award for Women in the Arts, and in 2017 was honoured by Deutsche Bank and Apollo as one of "40 under 40" global art specialists. Sara holds a BA (hons) in English Literature and History of Art, and an MA in 20th Century Art History and Theory from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She also pursued studies towards her PhD at the Royal College of Art, London.

Promotional

Sara Raza used to be curator at the Guggenheim in New York City. Her studio, Punk Orientalism, has already received quite a bit of coverage, see here for an article in Harpers Bazaar from 2019: Raza discusses establishing her own independent global art and visual cultures studio, her work over the last 14 years with international arts and cultural start-ups, institutions and platforms, and what's next for studio Punk OrientalismIt was very clear for me since the outset of my career as a curator and writer that being a "pen pusher" was not going to be a viable option. While crafting my professional practice over the course of the last decade I always fancied myself as a bit of a double agent, straddling both the institutional world of academia and the traditional museum space, and maintaining my independent non-conformist role by working on renegade projects across multiple time zones. This independent streak was most definitely been the defining catalyst in the recent establishment of my own global visual cultures studio in New York City where I live and work having moved to the US four years ago to take up the position of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator for the Middle East and North Africa for the third and final phase of the project, designed to diversify the museum's global holdings and successfully concluded in 2018.My studio is entitled "Punk Orientalism" and was inaugurated in January 2019, named after the umbrella term I invented to consolidate my academic, curatorial and publishing practice. It is fueled by the desire to produce innovative local and international projects that celebrate ideas and cultures of resistance. In retrospect, I feel that the studio was somewhat fated as I had previously served in leadership capacities for several international creative global startups, so it was inevitable that I would turn that energy and experience to myself one day. These startups included Maraya Art Centre in the UAE, the now defunct Alaan Art Space in Saudi Arabia, YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan, and the ongoing multi-city campus Mana Contemporary, where I continue to provide strategic consultancy for its artist professional development programmes.At the core of studio Punk Orientalism is an interdisciplinary spirit of collaboration, which has been part of my long term practice, built off of a reciprocal effort with artists and creatives including architects, designers and technologists, whom I have been working alongside in a variety of different capacities, ranging from curatorial and design to programming and publishing.I have been fortunate that several of my long term collaborators are artists who have had a profound impact on my practice and thinking these include Kabul-born artist Lida Abdul, whose poetic films and videos address the aftermath of decades of conflict and disaster in her native Afghanistan, and Bulgarian-born Turkish artist Ergin Cavusoglu, whose scholarly approach to art and human geographies dovetails with my own interests in the migration of people and ideas. Therefore, the initiation of my own studio was another logical step in thinking about marrying converging creative concepts outside of the rigid bureau/office format and creating a space that would allow for cross-pollination of ideas that solicit far reaching debate and discussion.The studio's global purview is intentional as it aims to build up visual cultural knowledge on the Middle East and the former post-Soviet territories of the Caucasus and Central Asia in the US through an ideas driven narrative. This concept is very much rooted in the studio's forthcoming project a collaboration with Snark.art, a blockchain laboratory in New York, and London-based Iranian architect Omid Kamvari to create a major sculpture and VR experience that explores complex historical murqanas architecture.The project aims to explores the vernacular architecture of Iran, from a mathematical and geometric standpoint, and to advance the dialogue beyond geography and Islam to focus on revolutionising collecting practices via the block chain and enabling a democratic and decentralised process that will allow individual collectors internationally to bypass stringent sanctions and rigid banking policies to acquire and collectively unite and support the building of the sculpture in real life.Parallel to the studio's projects I have not abandoned institutions entirely and have recently closed two museum shows in February 2019: Fateh al Moudarres: Colour, Extensity and Sense at Mathaf Modern Arab Art Museum, Doha, and the research-based exhibition Punk Orientalism that explored the connections between the former USSR and artists from the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East that will be followed up with further exhibition chapters, a publication and academic symposium.I was also announced as the 2019 guest curator for the "Year of Power" at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, and am working towards organising a group exhibition entitled Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance (16 August 2019 - 6 January 2020) featuring 10 contemporary artists.

Long Description

Punk Orientalism: The Art of Rebellion states of the USSR. The theme of non-conformity and the punk rejection of state authority is a continuous thread throughout the book, which highlights changing and divided societies and their evolving norms in the post-Soviet period. Inspired by the titular concepts, punk and orientalism, the text functions as a form of bricolage, uniting punk movements and strategies, which can be traced in popular visual culture from the 1970s onwards. The idea of punk is coupled with a critical study of orientalism and its historical association with imperialist assumptions of knowledge concerning the East. Punk Orientalism expands its association with this territory to explore former Soviet possessions in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as looking at the USSR's complex relationship with the Arab world, Iran and Turkey. Thematically organised, Punk Orientalism presents a thoroughly researched and fascinating selection of contemporary art from a complex and multifaceted part of the globe, featuring diverse artists such as Lida Abdul, Babi Badalov, Ergin

Description for Sales People

This book is one of the first books to focus on the contemporary art scene in Central Asia and the Caucasus.The author, Sara Raza, is an award-winning contemporary art curator and writer based in New York City, where she founded the curatorial studio Punk Orientalism, which specialises in global art and visual cultures. Fueled by the desire to produce innovative local and international projects that celebrate ideas and cultures of resistance, the Studio runs on an interdisciplinary spirit of collaboration, and is built off of a reciprocal effort with independent artists, architects, creatives and technologists.Punk Orientalism: List of museums Sara has worked with/exhibitions to which she''s contributed to:Between 2015-18 Sara was the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Middle East and North Africa, based at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, where she led the third and final phase of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, established the MENA collection and curated the exhibition But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, which debuted in New York (April-October 2016) and travelled to the Galleria d''Arte Moderna, Milan (April-June 2018).Sara has curated several international exhibitions and projects for biennials, festivals, and museums including Rhizoma: Generation in Waiting at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); Ergin Cavusoglu''s Middle Eastern debut exhibition at The Pavilion Downtown Dubai (2011); the Central Asian Salon for the 6th Tashkent Biennial at the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan (2011); Shezad Dawood''s first North American solo exhibition at the Plug In ICA, Winnipeg (2010); Practices of Everyday Life, New Image Making in the Middle East and Cult of Personality: Erbossyn Meldibekov and Sophia Tabatadze at Contemporary, Shanghai (both 2008); and the 2nd Bishkek International: In the Shadow of Fallen Heroes at the Bishkek Historical Museum and Alto Square, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (2005). Raza has also organized exhibitions at institutions including the Maraya Art Centre, where she served as curator from 2011-2014 and commissioned and curated solo exhibitions by Adel Abidin and Mohamed Kazem, as well as organizing group exhibitions Migrasophia and The Beginning of Thinking is Geometric, and inaugurated the Maraya Art Park with a permanent art and science sculpture commission by Wafaa Bilal. In 2018 she curated the thematic solo show Fateh Al Moudarres: Colour, Extensity and Sense for Mathaf Modern Arab Art Museum, Doha, Qatar, and the multi chapter exhibition project for Punk Orientalism at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and featured work by Nazgol Ansarinia, Inci Eviner, Aikaterini Gegisian, Rokni Haerizadeh, Taus Makhacheva, Slavs and Tatars, and others. In 2019 she was selected as the first contemporary art guest curator for the Rubin Museum of Art''s Year of Power and organized the group exhibition Clapping with Stones: Art and Acts of Resistance, which included the work of Lida Abdul, Kimsooja, Nari Ward, Hank Willis Thomas, Shahpour Pouyan, Pallavi Paul and others. Press for Sara/her work:Sara and her work have been featured in major arts and national press including Artforum, Art Africa, Artnet, ArtAsiaPacicic, BBC, Brownbook, Canvas, Contemporary Practices, Cultured, CNN Style, Harper''s Bazaar, Financial Times, Al Jazeera, Marie Claire, The National UAE, The New York Times, The Observer, Wall Street International and many others.Concise selling points:Unites punk movements and strategies that can be traced in popular visual culture from the 1970s onwards.Features artists who have challenged state and academic policies, mapped new territories and formed new artistic movements.Features diverse artists including Lida Abdul, Babi Badalov and Taus Makhacheva.Shines a light on one of the most under-researched regions in the contemporary art world.Essential for readers interested in revolutionary practices in contemporary art.Author Sara Raza is an award-winning contemporary art curator and writer based in New York City.

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