When it comes to eyewear, the prudent despot opts for something chunky. After all, glasses traditionally bespeak physical frailty, and what better way to defy such astigmatic prejudices than with a pair of wide-rimmed, rectangular frames so in-your-face as to virtually dare onlookers to call you four-eyes?
As of this writing, Zaki is rebuilding the same work–albeit with different materials, on a larger scale, and in a new configuration–for Fort Island, a speck of land in a manmade lagoon that serves as the centerpiece of Dubai’s opulent Madinat Jumeirah resort, which is hosting the second edition of Art Dubai. It’s unclear what [...]
Rosalind Nashashibi’s Bachelor Machines Part I centers on the unspectacular activities of the Italian crew of the cargo ship Gran Bretagna as it travels from Italy to the Baltic Sea. Over the course of thirty minutes, the men go about their business–attending to ship activities, eating, smoking and playing cards, dancing (furtively) in the dining [...]
On a wall in the ruins of Persepolis, Iran, there is a relief sculpture of Xerxes the Great, king of the Persian Empire from 485 to 465 BC. Sitting straight-backed on a throne with his bare feet resting on a dainty stool (the better not to touch the humdrum earth), he wears long, pleated robes [...]
Five years ago my Aunt Berkah gave birth to a miracle baby. My infant cousin’s right ear arrived crumpled into a vaguely legible spelling of “Allah” in Arabic. The doctors and nurses were overjoyed, local newspapers picked up the story, and the whole community considered the baby a blessing. Aunt Berkah named her Aya, which [...]
I was in Cairo, trying desperately to interview the aging pop star Ahmed Adaweya, whose penis, depending on whom you talk to, was or was not cut off by Saudi royalty. It was a uniquely American endeavor, mocked a friend of mine—invade the region with superior firepower, help topple a statue of Saddam Hussein, and [...]
LETTER
PREVIEWS
EPHEMERA
MUSEUM
Cairo Agriculture Museum
Clare Davies
ARTIST PROJECT
Children’s Museum
Vadim Fishkin
HOTEL
New Lebanon Hotel
Sahar Mandour
ART MARKET
Made in India
Hammad Nasar
CURATORIAL
What Remains is Future
Natasa Petresin-Bachelez
COLLECTION
Freaks of Culture
Madelon Vriesendorp
WORK IN PROGRESS
Tarek Zaki
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
PROFILE
Perfect Mute Forever
Rosalind Nashashibi
GALLERY
Hicham Benohoud
Roman Ondák
The Atlas Group
Trisha Donelly
Shirana Shahbazi
OBJECTUM
love at first sight
OBJECTS
The Headlace Of Xerxes
Tom Morton
Qaddafi’s Shades
George Pendle
The Cleaver Sleeve
Gary Dauphin
Metatron’s Breastplate
Peter Trachtenberg
General Dostum’s Clocks
Serge Michel & Paolo Woods
Hamid Batma’s Tabla Drum
Jace Clayton
My Beating Heart
Lisa Farjam
Gurdjieff’s Citroën
James Parker
Saddam Hussein’s Key to the City of Detroit
Rachel Aviv
Afro-horn
Brent Hayes Edwards
The Pearl Cannon
Sohrab Mohebbi
Hafez Al-Assad’s Iron Bladder
Rasha Salti
Santé Cigarette Box
Anna Boghiguian
Biscuit Tin
Pankaj Mishra
Condoleezza Rice’s Ice Skates
Peter James Hudson
Berber Blanket
Marco Roth
The Object
Reza Negarestani
Nefret Hur’s Toilette
Ahdaf Soueif
Anwar Sadat’s Pipe
Maria Golia
The Mujib Coat
Naeem Mohaiemen
The Taqwa Bus
Deena Chalabi
The Telltale Ass
Bruce Hainley
The Autobiography of Omar bin Said
Katie Pfohl
ANC2002.36
Sanchita Balachandran
Metal Desk, Palace of Justice, Brussels, Belgium
Brian Dillon
Idrisi Map
Max Rodenbeck
The Kooler
Pamela Karimi
Sabiha Gökcen’s Wings
Elizabeth Rubin
Signs of Allah
Sophia Al-Maria
Naguib Mahfouz’s White Linen Suit
Anand Balakrishnan
Abbas Akhavan
Kristina Lee Podesva
Christodolous Panayiotou
Tom Morton
Raphaël Zarka
Suzanne Cotter
COOKING
Zeina Arida
MUSIC
Super-Jew \& the Apostles of Funk
Alex Gartenfeld & David Macklovitchr
FILM
The Sweltering Sky
Bilge Ebiri
THE ARCHIVE
On Georges
Perec’s “Un Homme Qui Dort”
Ken Okiishi
The Decline of Middle Eastern Civilization
Gary Dauphin
PHRASE BOOK
Old Egyptian
