Queer contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa
Open-knowledge reference entry
Some authors often define queer expression as challenging or rethinking societal norms about gender, sexuality, and identity. Recent artists describe queer art within Middle East and North Africa as a way to encompass a wide variety of different artistic practices and media, including performance, painting, installation, photography, video, sculpture, fiber arts, drawing, mixed media practices, and more. Authors note that artists from the region and its diaspora have explored how sexuality, identity, and culture connect in their works. Both regions are also referred to as South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) to highlight the geography instead of the Eurocentric term ¨Middle East¨.
Several predominant themes emerge in the queer art of the Middle East and North Africa. Artists frequently explore gender identity, constructing binary interpretations of gender and creating non-normative expressions of gender, often through engagement with historical or archival material. Representations of sexuality, intimacy and diaspora are likewise frequent themes seen in queer art across the region.
Predominant themes
Interpretations of gender identity
Contemporary artists are exploring intersections between sexuality, gender expression, and cultural identities through their art, "queer curation" of exhibitions, and performances.
Contemporary artists like Yasmine K. Kasem and Chaza Charafeddine have explored articulations of non-normative gender expression in historical Islamic art, particularly through al Buraq, the genderless human-headed flying steed that carried the Islamic prophet Muhammad on his night journey. Kasem's Sweat Until I am Soaked (2022), a sculpture composed of three colorful Buraqs with her own face attached to them, serves as a commentary on finding space for her own identity as a queer Muslim to exist in the open.
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This entry incorporates text from “Queer contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.