Open Collections

Baumgartner, Chelsea Fay

University of British Columbia

The dissertation studies the work of nine contemporary AFAB queer artists of Muslim heritage, Arzu Haider, Ayqa Khan, Baseera Khan, Hana Shafi, Nabil Vega, Parisa Parnian, Saba Taj, Samra Habib, and Yara El Safi, working in the United States and Canada and the institutional contexts that shape their careers. Art institutions have been reckoning with the exclusionary nature of the art world for decades. In museum contexts inclusion is often defined as welcoming diverse audiences and presenting a variety of media. When inclusion is defined as showcasing the work of marginalized artists curatorial initiatives, and single shows are common methods of addressing institutional problems. However, these initiatives exist within an environment where only a limited number of resources are given to marginalized artists. For artists of Muslim heritage, the sometimes-surprising moments of inclusion are balanced with their relative invisibility within the wider art world. Queer artists of Muslim heritage are even further invisibilized within this minority. The reception of these artists is also related to this institutional context, where their presence in institutions and discussions in the popular press are presented as proof of societal change and acceptance without adequately addressing the exclusions their works describe. Many of these artists engage with the difficulties of being seen as queer people of Muslim heritage. As queer identities and Muslim heritage are often presented as irreconcilable, this heightens the stakes of visibility for these artists. Their negotiation of how they are received as queer artists of Muslim heritage is related to how these artists address this in their artwork. The interconnection between institutional factors that hinder or support artists, how their works are presented, and the meanings the works convey are all interconnected and serves as a case study to address complex, multiple marginalizations.

Text

2022-06-30

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/81867

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/