Informed Comment

Henri Matisse. The Algerian Woman. 1909. Oil on canvas. Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

The depiction of the Middle East has, since Edward Said’s Orientalism, often been approached in binary terms and in the framework of “power/knowledge” in the tradition of Friedrich Nietzche and Michel Foucault.

There is, however, an argument to be made for the Middle East as an influence on European modernity, not just the other way around. When one moves away from politics and economics to culture, power/knowledge becomes more ambiguous. People have multiple identities, and appropriate from various sources, and are changed by their influences. Goethe was clearly deeply changed by his encounter with the Persian poet Hafez, something that Said’s approach kept him from seeing.

French painter Henri Matisse, who came to prominence as a post-expressionist and then leader of a school called Fauvism (which rejected Picasso’s cubism), was deeply influenced by Japanese painting, as well as by his experiences in North Africa. Some of his famed striving for serenity probably has at least implicit roots in the Sufism and Buddhism of his influences. European Modernism is often treated as a European phenomenon, but it was global, and Africa and Asia played big roles in it.

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Photo by Juan Cole, May, 2012

Aghlabid, rebuilt 863.

For another traveler’s view of Kairouan, see this blog.

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Kairouan, Tunisia, May 2012, from a rooftop.

Photo by Juan Cole

For more on this UNESCO Heritage City, see this link.

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Photograph by Juan Cole, July 27, 2010

The Torre del Oro in Seville, Spain, was built in the 1200s by the Almohad (Berber Muslim) dynasty to serve as a watchtower to guard the Gualdalquivir River (in Arabic, Wadi al-Kabir or ‘big river valley.’)

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Photo by Juan Cole, June, 2009

Sultan Mosque, Singapore
Constructed 1928
Architect: Denis Santry of Swan and Maclaren
Replaced: Mosque of Sultan Hussein, 1824-1826

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Plaque in the Church of St. John the Evangelist (the Afghan Church), Colaba, Mumbai (Bombay)

(Photograph by Juan Cole, March, 2011)

Interior of the church:

(Photograph by Juan Cole, March, 2011)

Number of US troops killed inside Afghanistan since 2001: 1776

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Photograph by Juan Cole at the National Museum of Singapore, June, 2009:

“Love Tank
by S.Teddy D. (Indonesia)

Multiplex, Resin, Metal Structure
Approx. 200 x 500 x 650 cm

Tanks, synonymous with the landscape of war, are instrumental war machines in the propagation of western supremacy.

Pagoda, adorned with lotuses and often part of a temple compound, believed to be the padmasana, the seats of gods and goddesses who rule this world, is the shape of temples and a symbol for the levels of pure love in Eastern cultures.

This work expresses the interaction between the East and West cultures – an interaction which often ends in clashes. The adaptation of these cultures is symbolised through the visual language of seven tanks stacked on top of one another forming a tall structure resembling a Pagoda. The tanks are decorated or camouflaged with red lotuses and the juxtaposition transforms the killing machine into one that conveys love and peace to humankind.

About S. Teddy D.
Artist S. Teddy Darmawan was born in Padang in 1970 and graduated from Indonesia Institute of Arts, Fine Arts Department, Yogyakarta. He was Artist in Residence in Aachen, Germany and was selected for best five of Phillip Morris Awards 2001 (Indonesia).”

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