The intelligent oriental man reached the deadend of his theoretical and practical ideals in the middle of the twentieth century and faced two paths: one, to faithfully conform to the rules of modernism and the other, to point his finger towards European-American thought as a culprit. The orient, or more accurately, the Middle East chose the second path and it is interesting how such despair was considered as a sign of self-consciousness of nations captive to their historical self.(1)
Forgotten in these equations was the key reality that, due to the intertwining of the contemporary doctrine with Christian rationality, the oriental elite are considered western citizens who are born by chance in Asia or Africa and live there. Let us not forget propositions such as the end of the world or deterioration of modernist culture as well as doubting the essence of the West are all European terminology which, unexpectedly, have become fashionable in the East and suffer today, in the challenge of functionalism, from a credibility gap.
The physical confrontation of the East and West in the second year of the new century is a reminiscent of the horror of the crusades.(2) Evidentially, the recent historical epoch is the end of a battle which started in the late eleventh century now coming to an end by the merging of philosophies through media.
Furthermore, the recent socio-political transformation of the third world confirms this bitter reality that the loss of identity in the East does not necessarily lead to the rise of a new culture. This absence has prepared the ground for the growth of the bacteria of extremism.
What relates this crisis to Karim Nasr’s paintings is his clever warning that the loss of identity of the orient does not necessarily result from cultural imperialist conspiracy; rather, the danger originates from subcultures annihilating us from within: an immedicable leprosy which even the metaphysical forces cannot heal.
The non-Western world watches passively its burial both in the media and the real world. The current mentality and relations of this cultural geography are necessarily forgotten under the interactions of the unfolding century and turn into part of the oriental tradition. Accepting such negative truth forms part of our understanding of our today and future Middle East.
Seeking truth is generally sought in two approaches: one is called scientific (correspondence) and the other, poetical (coherence). (3)
The truth of the Middle East is similarly crystallized in two forms: Dick Chaney’s great Middle East (in Davos 2003) was an orientalist and beautiful dream of Moroccan harems, Arabian bazaars, oriental croquette of veiled women, odor of Indian spices and Andalusian music. However, the current truth of this geographical territory is violence, chaos, road bombs and a resistance against change.
‘Last Hill of East’, the title of this collection of Karim Nasr’s paintings is a realistic reaction to the deterioration of the East in confrontation with the Hollywoodian self. The virtual King Kong succeeded in subverting the material history and traditions of this geography without any destructive intention.
It is necessary to insist upon this unintentional quality in order to segregate Karim Nasr’s idea from the theories of intellectuals and sociologists such as Edward Said or Noam Chomsky, generally suffering from political cynicism and the conspiracy theory of silence.
The general approach of the contemporary thinker, no matter foreign or local, towards the orient is usually summarized in a reconsideration of a cycle of poststructuralist supremacy. Even thinkers considering themselves intellectually independent from the West, have not managed to confront the reality of being oriental in its largest and most fluid meaning.
Lastly, Karim Nasr’s orient is a deteriorating body of nations which failed to relate to the relations of the contemporary world and create the possibility of reform and recapturing their identity and tradition in their tribal and tyrannized isolation. Nasr neither gives an appreciative interpretation of his historical tradition as a narrator nor criticizes his current living: whatever he is, he can be considered a realist and his work, in Charles Baudelaire’s definition of realism, is an ‘exact description of vulgarity.’
His orient is a contemporary Pompeii which will be buried under the ashes of technological and media volcano.
Resources
1. Selfless Man, Ali Shariati’s collection of works, 1982, first edition, p. 229.
2. G.W.Bush's speech delivered at the White House, 16 Sept. 2001.
3. Realism, Damain Grant, Methuen and Co Ltd. 1974, trans. Hassan Afshar, 1996. p. 20.
4. Cultural Term, Ali Asghar Gharebaghi, Sooreh Mehr publication, 2004, p. 115.
Shahrouz nazari
2010 August