ORIENTALISM & THE ARAB BODY

THE PRODUCTION OF MEANING

Frank Dicksee, Leila, 1892, Oil on canvas

'a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and

having authority over the Orient
Edward Said, Orientalism, 1979

Another important function, then, of the picturesque Orientalizing in this case

is to certify that the people encapsulated by it, defined by its presence, are
irredeemably different from, more backward than, and culturally inferior to
those who construct and consume the picturesque product. They are irrevocably
Other.
Linda Nochlin, The Imaginary Orient, 1983

Jean Leon Gerome, The Snake Charmer, c. 1870, Oil on canvas

Jean Leon Gerome

The Slave Market
1867
Oil on canvas

Jean Leon Gerome

For Sale: Slaves at Cairo
c. 1871
Oil on canvas

Jean Leon Gerome

The Moorish Bath
c. 1870
Oil on canvas

Eugene Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1827, Oil on canvas

THE ODALISQUE / HAREM

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque, 1814, Oil on canvas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Odalisque with Slave, 1841, Oil on canvas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1862, Oil on canvas

Jean Leon Gerome

After the Bath
1881

Jean Leon Gerome, Harem Girls Feeding Pigeons in a Courtyard, 1895, Oil on canvas

Pierre Auguste Renoir

The Harem
1872

Henri Regnault
Execution without Judgment
Under the Caliphs of Granada
1870

Colonial Algeria, early 20th cen.

"Wanting to possess the Algerian land,

French colonists first claimed the bodies of
its women, using sex as a surrogate for an
extension of another larger usurpation of
culture."
From Malek Aloullas
Colonial Harem

From Malek Aloullas

Colonial Harem

Marc Garanger
Algerian women photo IDs
c. 1960

Marc Garanger
Algerian women photo IDs
c. 1960

Marc Garanger
Algerian women photo IDs
c. 1960

French postcard, c. 1920

HOLLYWOODS ARAB

D.W. Griffiths Intolerance, 1915

The Sheik
1921

The Thief of Baghdad, 1924

The Thief of Baghdad, 1924

Porky Pig Ali-Baba Bound, 1932

Porky Pig Ali-Baba Bound, 1932

Porky Pig Ali-Baba Bound, 1932

BACK TO THE HAREM!

Spike Jones & His City Slickers, The Sheik of Araby, 1942

Son of Sinbad, 1955

Harum Scarum, 1965

Leon Uris
&
Edward Gottlieb

1958

Poster for Exodus, 1960

Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981

Back to the Future,

1985

Aladdin, 1992

Aladdin, 1992

Brood of Serpents, from Julius Streichers Der Strmer, September 1934"

JAFAR
THE JEW

Produced in coordination with the U.S. Department of Defense

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Executive Decision (1996)
Death Before Dishonor (1987)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Navy Seals (1990)
Rules of Engagement (2000)
True Lies (1994)
Iron Eagle (1986)
Andmany more

Zero Dark Thirty, Dir. Katherine Bigelow, 2012

Rules of Engagement,
2000

Iron Eagle, 1986

CRIMSON JIHAD!

True Lies, 1994

THE HYPERREAL & SIMULACRA

While repetition can represent the larger structures that surround us, it
also reveals the impossibility of single truths in photography. The fact that
a single view can be repeated but is modified each time through the filters
that affect its appearance weather, light, culture, society, events,
politics, economics makes each photograph a fragment of a whole that s
impossible to fully describe or reach. It might seem that multiplying a
view would get us closer to the truth; instead, repetition reminds us that
meanings are always multiple and changingRepetition suggests that
views are never singular, but that each time we look, we see something
different.
Sze Tsung Leong, A Picture You Already Know, 2008

SIMULACRUM From the Oxford English Dictionary:

1. A material image, made as a representation of some deity, person, or
thing.
2. Something having merely the form or appearance of a certain thing,
without possessing its substance or proper qualities.
3. A mere image, a specious imitation or likeness, of something.

In addition, (Baudrillards) postmodern universe is one of hyperreality in which

entertainment, information, and communication technologies provide experiences
more intense and involving than the scenes of banal everyday life, as well as the
codes and models that structure everyday life. The realm of the hyperreal (e.g.,
media simulations of reality, Disneyland and amusement parks, malls and
consumer fantasylands, TV sports, and other excursions into ideal worlds) is more
real than real, whereby the models, images, and codes of the hyperreal come to
control thought and behavior. Yet determination itself is aleatory in a non-linear
world where it is impossible to chart causal mechanisms in a situation in which
individuals are confronted with an overwhelming flux of images, codes, and
models, any of which may shape an individual's thought or behavior.
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Kingdom, 2007

1976

2011

2012

1973

2003

1970

2007

1968

2004

2003

2006

2011

1945

Jean Leon Gerome, The Snake Charmer, c. 1870, Oil on canvas

ABU GHRAIB 2003 - 2004