katalog-overlapping voices - Ritesinstitute

jUmana manna’S “araB men”
INVADING THE HAREm WoRLD oF mEN: RoLE REVERSAL oF THE GAZE
In the series of photos on view, jumana manna has alternated roles of intrusion
and invasion. Her previous trajectory of work seems to be tied to the exploration
of the social/political connotation of the word “invasion” in multiple ways.
In many of her previous works, we find her ‘invading’ the lives of men and women,
in political and even intimate spheres, as a way to unveil the structures of
control that lie beneath. In order to do that, manna deploys reversed-role stratagems,
challenging the pervasive Freudian assumptions, altering the pre-construed
and revealing the dynamics of all-encompassing behaviours and codes of
conduct in a context closed off from public scrutiny. Here manna seems to be
role-playing the predominant “voyeur” associated with men and directing it at
a specific target – Arab men, with a desire to deconstruct those stereotyped
images and expose the evident vulnerability in their poses and the real manifestations
of their identity. manna shifts her focus towards the issue of identity
of Arab men because she feels that this is an issue that has long been neglected
and is extremely vital, given the current state of the dominant and exaggerated
macho prototype that surrounds and shrouds this identity. And rightly so, for
much is discussed about the issue of women in muslim/Arab society, their suppressed
identity and mistreatment, to a point of ludicrousness, whereas less is
discussed about the identity of the Arab man, despite the fact that he is also a
victim of his own culture’s stagnation and also embodies a system of oppression
and even validates a more comprehensive feminist perspective.
This photographic art project is two-fold; in the first attempt manna essentially
sets out in her car, ‘cruising around’ – an act very much associated with young
Arab men who suffer from idleness, aimlessness and apathy – where she approaches
men through her lowered window and asks to take their photo. Here
manna intentionally adopts a gender challenge, embodying habits, playfully distorting
roles and going as far as manipulating the control of the gaze towards the
other sex. In these series of snapshots, we find those young men peering back
at her, somewhat eagerly, their bodily definitions and distortions in the bent-over
position, reflective of a state where their social shields are down for a brief moment.
Their latent curiosity gets the better of them, for here a crossover happens
and they seem quite permissive of this role reversal and crossover of sexual status.
Taboos are thresholds to be stepped over, is what they are saying. Eagerness
breaks the static stereotype, and their greater humanity prevails.
A progression, like the climbing of stairs, can be sensed from viewing the second
round of photographs. It is as if the artist intends to experiment with how
far a woman can go in crossing male territory in this dormant specific context
that has been most diligent in restricting access to the opposite sex. And by doing
so she provides an answer of humanity to counter prevalent assumptions of
dehumanized and even terrorized masculinity. The second series of photographs
are of young Arab men in their most intimate spaces – their bedrooms, and actually
lying on their beds, some even in the altogether or underwear. In this very
act, several societal projected taboos have been challenged, and not only on
just a specific contextual basis, but here we see images reminiscent of magazine
spreads where usually the main protagonists of such a pose are women.
The reversed phallic disposition of the photographer that manna takes up is obviously
intentional. In her attempt to examine mainstream social behaviour, she
broaches subjects of control and ultimately its invoked vehicle, the gaze. The
harem here, i.e. the quarters now not of women but of men, have been laid
bare, and we find reluctant souls, with embarrassed smiles depicted in white
and black to assert their multiplicity and refute the benign claims of holding
extremities.
manna sets out to assert these new found variables of truth by borrowing archival
elements, and attaching it to the work, especially with the repetition of the
settings, be it the frame of the car, or the beds, and the large amount of photos
that she has taken for both series. Here a Becher tradition is utilized, where appearances
are examined and compared in order to reveal not merely the
structural.
manna’s photographic series refer to a deeper context of self-criticality and
a non-haphazard socio-political critique, which makes her art most interesting.
She breaks boundaries of dualities – private/public, men/women, real/
constructed – to provide insights and critical assessments of our social state,
therefore disrupting the status quo of assumptions that go beyond the merely
local, and to seek a greater understanding and proximity of our twin-gendered
humanity.
Reem Fadda
“famiLiar”
VIDEo AND PHoToGRAPHY
In searching for the deepest sense of comfort and satisfaction through my
mother’s breastfeeding at an adult age, I attempted to return to the unconditional
love, one that is irreplaceable, that we continue searching for all our
lives and which is amongst the reasons for our constant dissatisfaction.
In the psychoanalytical scheme of things, breasts are the source of a person’s
deepest emotions. The act of breastfeeding is not only the child’s first activity
but also the starting point of all sexual life.
With an exaggerated sucking sound, the originally pure act of breastfeeding
assumes a distorted, discomforting aspect for viewers, as it transcends social
rules of conduct in relation to nurturing, touching, and familiarity.
Jumana Manna
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