Cities of Islamic Art: From Historical Visual Systems to the Formation of Contemporary Islamic Art in North America
Building 3, Room 133, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Featuring artist Laurelie Rae. This lecture uses Cities of Islamic Art, Vol. 2 as both an object and a methodology to examine Islamic art as a mobile system of visual knowledge rather than a fixed historical style. Beginning with historical surfaces from Isfahan, Istanbul, Damascus, Cairo, and Granada, the talk traces how motifs migrate across ceramics, tiles, manuscripts, and architecture to form the fabric of visual culture and heritage known as “Islamic Art.” The lecture then shifts to the speaker’s doctoral research, examining how these visual systems are reframed and redefined by visual and sonic artists within the North American diaspora context. The artist’s book functions here as a curatorial and analytical device—a way of reorganizing visual knowledge outside conventional art historical and museological categories. No registration required.