Art, Race, and Capitalism in the Postcolonial Arab Gulf States

后殖民阿拉伯海湾国家的艺术、种族和资本主义

• 批准号: ES/X00614X/1
• 负责人: Maia Holtermann Entwistle
• 金额: $ 14.34万
• 依托单位: London School of Economics and Political Science
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX00614X%2F1
• 关键词: Art; Race; Capitalism; Postcolonial; Arab

The emergence of a high cultural sector in the Gulf began with the opening of its market as a "fix" for the asset price bubble building in the historic Western capitals of the art market during the 1990s and 2000s (Harvey, 2001). Starting with this initial drive to incorporate the Gulf's surfeit of petrodollars, my PhD thesis traces the processes through which a particular Western model of high culture has been exported to the Gulf. Recent interdisciplinary research has demonstrated the central role that racial ideas inherited from empire play in global markets (Abourahme, 2019; Danewid, 2020; Leroy and Jenkins, 2021; Lowe, 2015; Robinson, 1985; Wearing, 2021). Building on this work, my research shows how race lubricated this art market expansion, with racial ideas resolving the tensions that emerged as the cultural sector's liberal ideals chafed against the profoundly hierarchical conditions of global markets in labour and goods. More specifically, it shows how racial discourses separate "high culture" as a set of ideas from the culture industry as a set of profoundly material practices, comprising circuits of capital, art objects, built institutions, workers, and the social relations that bring them together. To fully grasp the political economy of high cultural institution building thus necessitates an "infrastructural" approach. This means taking account not only of art objects and the practices of meaning-making associated with them, but also of the gamut of disciplines and markets involved in creating an entire cultural infrastructure: architectural design, engineering, construction, heritage conservation, and urban planning. Emphasising the inextricability of such concrete practices from the high culture industry, my research also demonstrates how cultural infrastructures on the Arabian Peninsula gave racial ideas, and the uneven distribution of power and resources they license, a durable existence in the urban landscape. As I note, these racial dynamics do not fit neatly within postcolonial theory's traditional geographies (East/West) and periodisations (colonial/postcolonial).My research therefore offers a new approach to the study of the transnational field of high culture. Indeed, while such material underpinnings are obscured by the long-term existence of museums, galleries, and art fairs in the historic Western capitals of the high culture industry, they remain equally central to them. Additionally, by highlighting race and carbon-based economic interdependence as colonial afterlives that are central to the political economy of the Gulf's emerging cultural infrastructure, my research offers a bridge across the two prevailing strands of sociological research on high culture: one focusing on the legacies of colonialism and the other on the penetration of contemporary art by finance capital. Finally, the thesis argues for the need to stretch the conceptual machinery of postcolonial theory to fit the more complex racial and economic dynamics my research uncovered. In line with what I outlined in the previous section, this Fellowship will enable me to turn the innovative, interdisciplinary research described here into three published articles in high-impact journals. It will also allow me to secure a book contract with either Cambridge University Press or University of California Press. This book will make a major contribution to the interdisciplinary study of the Middle East, straddling racial, urban, and cultural studies, as well as international political economy and political geography. Beyond these published outputs, the Fellowship will also allow me to undertake a range of non-academic research dissemination activities (see above). These activities will benefit research users across the professional and political arenas that my research engages (see below).

海湾地区高级文化部门的出现始于其市场的开放，作为对20世纪90年代和21世纪初西方艺术市场历史名城资产价格泡沫形成的“修复”（Harvey, 2001）。我的博士论文从最初整合海湾地区石油美元过剩的动力开始，追溯了一种特殊的西方高雅文化模式被输出到海湾地区的过程。最近的跨学科研究表明，继承自帝国的种族观念在全球市场中发挥着核心作用（Abourahme, 2019; Danewid, 2020； Leroy和Jenkins, 2021; Lowe, 2015; Robinson, 1985; Wearing, 2021）。在这项工作的基础上，我的研究展示了种族如何润滑了艺术市场的扩张，种族思想解决了文化部门的自由主义理想与全球劳动力和商品市场的深刻等级制度条件相抵触时出现的紧张关系。更具体地说，它展示了种族话语是如何将“高雅文化”作为一套观念与文化工业作为一套深刻的物质实践分开的，文化工业包括资本、艺术品、建筑机构、工人和将它们聚集在一起的社会关系的循环。因此，要全面把握高等文化制度建设的政治经济学，就必须从“基础设施”的角度出发。这意味着不仅要考虑艺术品和与之相关的意义创造实践，还要考虑创造整个文化基础设施所涉及的学科和市场的范围：建筑设计、工程、施工、遗产保护和城市规划。我的研究强调了这些具体实践与高雅文化工业的不可分割性，同时也展示了阿拉伯半岛的文化基础设施如何赋予种族观念，以及它们所许可的权力和资源的不平衡分配，在城市景观中持久存在。正如我所指出的，这些种族动态并不完全符合后殖民理论的传统地理（东方/西方）和时期（殖民/后殖民）。因此，我的研究为研究高雅文化的跨国领域提供了一种新的途径。事实上，虽然这些物质基础被长期存在的博物馆、画廊和艺术博览会所掩盖，但它们对西方历史悠久的高雅文化工业之都来说仍然同样重要。此外，通过强调种族和以碳为基础的经济相互依存是海湾地区新兴文化基础设施政治经济的核心，我的研究为高雅文化的两种主流社会学研究提供了一座桥梁：一种关注殖民主义的遗产，另一种关注金融资本对当代艺术的渗透。最后，本文认为有必要扩展后殖民理论的概念机制，以适应我的研究发现的更复杂的种族和经济动态。根据我在上一节概述的内容，这项奖学金将使我能够将这里描述的创新、跨学科研究转化为在高影响力期刊上发表的三篇文章。它还将使我能够与剑桥大学出版社或加州大学出版社签订出书合同。这本书将对中东的跨学科研究做出重大贡献，跨越种族，城市和文化研究，以及国际政治经济和政治地理。除了这些已发表的成果外，奖学金还将允许我进行一系列非学术研究传播活动（见上文）。这些活动将使我的研究涉及的专业和政治领域的研究用户受益（见下文）。