Abstraction in artistic expressions of popular Saudi culture (original) (raw)

Abstract

Originally titled: "Understanding abstraction in artistic expressions in contemporary media of the Arabian Gulf" in the conference program. *** Abstract: Islamic art has often been characterized by abstraction, tajreed, and is often associated with the religious restriction on figurative representation for fear of idolatry and the transgression against God’s act of creation. The common perception of Islamic art often manifested in the domains of calligraphy and zakharif, decorative patterns, which are both absent of the figure. This paper explores the following questions: What new forms of abstraction have shaped popular art in the Arabian Gulf region? How can we redefine our understanding of abstraction in this contemporary context beyond the Western conception and the traditional historic tajreed? What are the factors influencing these understandings of these emerging definitions? I will close read artistic expressions in new media forms and popular culture of the Arabian Gulf region, examining artifacts consumed by the often non-artistic public. These will include: religious posters and booklets, often distributed at schools and public spaces or events at the peak of Al-Sahwa in the 1990s; Newspaper cartoons, focusing on the evolving perceptions that constantly reshaped their characters, especially those by Abdulaziz Almuzaini, which featured characters with missing facial features; Social media profiles, often shying away from immediate representation and reduced to iconic expressions of the self; graffiti and wall street art; and the sung nasheed, lately evolving into the more westernized A-capella renditions of popular western music.

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