Minidoka on My Mind, Roger Shimomura’s new exhibition, opens May 8th in New York City at Flomenhaft Gallery. His unparalleled insights into the conditions of life in Japanese internment camps during WW II stunningly blend humor and popular culture styling with an unmistakable– and unforgettable bite.

Pau D’Amato, ‘Bedroom Door’, 2007

In his thoughtful exhibition essay accompanying Black Is, Black Ain’t, curator Hamza Walker considers race as a biological fiction “that remains a social fact whose history more than compensates for all that science disavows.” Taking its title from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, it explores a shift in the rhetoric of race from an earlier emphasis on inclusion to a present moment where racial identity is being simultaneously rejected and retained. The exhibition brings together works by 26 black and non-black artists whose work together examines a moment where the cultural production of so-called “blackness” is concurrent with efforts to make race socially and politically irrelevant.

At the Renaissance Society in Chicago, until June 8.

“My contention is that Orientalism is fundamentally a political doctrine willed over the Orient because the Orient was weaker than the West, which elided the Orient’s difference with its weakness. . . . As a cultural apparatus Orientalism is all aggression, activity, judgment, will-to-truth, and knowledge.” (Edward Said, Orientalism)

Recent political developments have once again shed light on the question of East/West relationships. Framing the Other: 30 Years After Orientalism, is a symposium that looks at the 30th anniversary of Edward Said’s Orientalism as a suitable opportunity to re-examine the impact and currency of Said’s key arguments. Famously suggesting that discourse about other cultures is always inherently ideological, Said developed a highly controversial postcolonial critique of cultural representation. The symposium will focus on his legacy to analyze visual culture and its construction of the ‘Other’.

Organized by the Courtauld Institute of Art in London on April 26, lecture topics will range from 19th Century visual culture to contemporary Islamic art.

Planet of the Arabs is a trailer-esque montage of Hollywood’s relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims by artist Jacqueline Salloum. Descending from Palestinian immigrants in the US, Salloum felt “forever the foreigner, and with the constant exposure to only negative images of Arabs in the news and Hollywood films, […] grew up feeling ashamed of being an Arab. […] her feelings soon reversed in her teens… with a twist of candy-coated vengeance.” Inspired by the book Reel Bad Arabs by Dr. Jack Shaheen.

Here for Framing the Other: 30 Years After Orientalism.

Here for Jacqueline Sammoun.

African cartoon and comic strips have a long-standing history, which in some countries reaches back for more than 40 years. Drawing upon the rich traditions of storytelling, portraiture, mask-making, pictograms, and ideographic carvings, the cartoonists typically lace these cultural elements with a healthy serving of satirical French journalism. By using caricature as a form of resistance, names such as Messager Popoli and L’Oeil du Sahel have made a deep impact on the African journalistic landscape, blatantly attacking and ridiculing the hierarchies and contradictions of African societies and politics with their work. Considering the political dynamic of the African nations between 1960 -1990, many cartoonists have been threatened, harassed, exiled, kidnapped and some even killed.

Today however, the comic strip is no longer limited to political commentary, but is evolving into a powerful vehicle for education, development, information sharing, and empowerment. Thanks to the internet, artists are able to produce and distribute their comic strips more easily and evade censorship stipulations. Covering problematic and sensitive topics such as human rights violations, HIV, torture in prison, child soldiers, the role of women in society, politics, tribal conflict, and the empowerment of minority groups, the comic strips have become a vital tool in raising awareness, educating the people and promoting social change.

Even though the majority of the comic books tend to be grim and dark they are always vivid and highly expressive. The artistic and thematic diversity is infinite, as books and strips range from political cartoons to pop-cultural formats, may come in color or black and white, can be hand drawn, painted, collaged, or even created on the computer. As some artists are slowly beginning to win international recognition, domestically the comic strips are central in shaping modern African consciousness and culture, as they are able to galvanize, educate and give a voice to the underprivileged.

Although it is hard to come across these comic strips or books on this side of the world, once you do get your hands on one of them, you are guaranteed to be holding a beautiful piece of art in your hands and a unique insight into the mystical world of African modernity.

Amir ElSaffar’s unique blend of contemporary jazz and traditional Iraqi song forms has led him to the forefront of the avant-garde jazz trumpet scene. This 30 year old Chicago born trumpeter, singer, and santoor player might be quite humble about his own music – “There’s not much to know about it, you can ask me questions later”, he opened a recent concert in New York – but he’s definitely pushing a more radical agenda of cross-cultural connections. A recent article in The Wire talks about his latest recording, Two Rivers:

That cultural divide is most plainly played out in ElSaffar’s Blues In E-Half-Flat, which closes the disc. To write a piece on santoor, call it a blues and sing it in Arabic, to steep a song so deeply in the traditions of America and Iraq, whose fortunes are currently so violently linked, has to be a kind of commentary – or if not, the composer has to be prepared for such conclusions to be drawn. “It’s a 12-bar using E-half-flat as the ‘blue’ note,” he explains. “I think it’s a beautiful part of that music, that sound that we associate with Middle Eastern tonality – that wail, that cry, it’s a universal part of the human condition and it’s something I really came across in Iraqi music.”

ElSaffar, who played with the likes of Pierre Boulez, Cecil Taylor and Dave Douglas, grew up as the son of an Iraqi Shiite Muslim and a Christian American mother. His father was a devout fan of American jazz, while he was exposed to traditional Iraqi music at family gatherings. Despite the ongoing war he doesn’t consider his music political: “It’s kind of more anti-political because the politics, as far as I can see, haven’t done anything to help, not from any angle. I think the music has a very positive message and effect. But I’ve never found any slogans in this situation to stand up for.”

Here for the artist’s website.

Here for downloadable music.

Kosovo’s capital: Pristina

Provisions recently embarked on an exciting trip to research social and artistic developments in the Balkans as the region enters what will hopefully be an extended period of peace, reconciliation and rebuilding. Journalist and long-time Provisions Fellow John Feffer joined us on the trip and has just published an article in The American Prospect highlighting some of the people we interviewed. In the coming months we will be creating a website with all 22 interviews, photographs and artworks, which will in turn be the basis for further research, an exchange project and eventually a traveling exhibition.

Azra Aksamija is an Austrian artist and architect who was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has developped a provocative body of work that explores “ways of negotiating spatial relationships of Islamic religious practices and identities in a secular and contemporary context”. Her work combines the best of Krzysztof Wodiczko’s interventionist art projects with Lucy Orta’s transformable clothes. Here’s what we-make-money-not-art has to say about Survival Mosque:

Survival Mosque is a kit containing elements for the self protection of Muslims living in the USA today: an American-flag pattern that communicates patriotism, an umbrella that surveys one’s back, washing solution for ablution and for cleaning when a Muslim get spit on, ear plugs against insults, American constitution proofing rights of American Muslims, a loud-speaker with speech on tolerance held by President George W. Bush, educative books, communication devices, etc. The mosque is self-sufficient; the prayer rug is supplying its own energy source via photo-voltaic solar cells. The Survival Mosque can be transformed and camouflaged into bags, which communicate with each other via bluetooth. The bag-speakers reflect paranoia spreading messages regarding terrorism, but they can also function as muezzins; calling for prayer at prayer times. The kit challenges the way diverse prejudices and fears to Muslims could be reversed.

Here for Azra Aksamija’s website.

Here for an interview with the artist.

Breaking down the many social structures underpinning racism is a valuable practice to advance. Graphic designer Rob Giampietro has contributed an amazing analysis of the jacket typography of books by African-American authors that traces certain typefaces back to racist and exotic popular advertising of the 19th century.

The article, New Black Face: Neuland and Lithos as “Stereotypography”, was published in 2004 in letterspace.

Thanks to 3 Quarks Daily and Art Threat