Design/ Art Precedents: Slavs and Tatars: Research and Humor

Slavs and Tatars research focuses on the region between Great Wall of china and the former Berlin Wall. Their work Combines Humor and research, and invite people to get into the depth of their research through welcoming generous humor.




I like the way the translate diffecult concepts and historical documents to satrical art pieces, one of my inspirations is Tongue Twist Her project.

The Research behind Tongue Twist Her: “Vladimir Lenin was advocating his own linguistic face-lift. Called “The Revolution of the East,” Lenin wished to latinize the various languages of Soviet Muslims.

in an effort to modernize and also, essentially, to cut them off from their Arabic script — and thus their ties to Islam. In 1929, the Muslim subjects of the nascent USSR were asked to begin reading from left to right in a new script, and to burn any extant documents and books bearing the Arabic script.

A mere ten years later, Stalin suspected Soviet Muslims of swaying too close to the West and identified the Latin alphabet as the culprit. In an about-face that would be amusing if it were not so tragic, Soviet Muslims were asked to begin afresh: this time, keeping the left to right but using the Cyrillic alphabet instead.” This reflects the complexity behind their project which what I aim to achieve in my project.

Tongue Twist Her:

“A pole often found in nightclubs or sex bars has traded in the topless dancer for something no less racy:a giant, fleshy tongue. Tongue Twist Her shows not peoples or nations that are liberated, but the dizzying and devastating swings – in this case lingual – of phonemes, graphemes, and organs.”

The outcome is funny and humorise and explains a diffecult history for the muslims soviets at the same.

Design/ Art Precedents: Sultan the first: Reimagining found objects  

Holy land Porject 
Reimagining and reinterpreting found Objects to tell a story

In Holy Land, Sultan bin Fahad celebrates the souvenirs that were once sold by merchants to pilgrims in the two holy cities of Makkah al-Mukarramah and Al-Madinah al-Munawarrah. These thermos flasks, prayer mats, bottles, and tins, all decorated in the style of their countries of origin, represent vestiges of an economy now extinct. Bin Fahad has selected images found on them-minarets, palm trees, blooming roses, pomegranates, and figs-and transformed them into a garden of love and joy. 

In his practice bin Fahad reinterprets history, stories and narratives with the use of material culture; he transposes these narratives to contemporary means as a reassessment and personal take on Saudi Arabia. Themes central to his practice revolve around reimagining found objects, Islam and Saudi history and identity.

What I like about his work here, is not the concepts but mostly the visual language that is authentic to our region.

Design/ Art Precedents: Heba Y. Amin: Archival history  

Operation Sunken Sea
Mixed Media: Performance, Installation

Invested in the power of technology to generate a new future for humankind, OPERATION SUNKEN SEA explores the 20th century
techno-utopian proposal to drain and reroute the Mediterranean Sea
to converge Africa and Europe into one supercontinent.

Amin investigates significant transformations in territorial constructs and their impact on new geopolitical alliances and global politics. the project responds to the contemporary moment of political uncertainty in Europe, the unrest and collapse of nation-states in the Middle East and the neo-liberal failure of globalization in Africa.

The project mimickes languages of fascist regimes – and promotes a new vision for Africa and the Middle East by pinpointing what could be attained by for those most affected by the wars waged for resources and power in the last century.

Her work focuses on one specific historical incident that explains very controversial Western ideologies that affected our region and in my case I look at her work to understand Orientalism.