There Is No Kurdish Art
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.13169/jinte.2.2.0103 |
| Pages | 103-128 |
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Author | Autumn Cockrell-Abdullah |
| Subject Matter | Kurdish art,Kurdish history,marginalized peoples,culture,Sulaimani,Iraqi Kurdistan,intersectionality,conflict |
The Journal of Intersectionality
103Volume Two, Number Two
There Is No Kurdish Art
Autumn Cockrell-Abdullah
Research Fellow, Global South Research Consortium
Abstract: This essay considers the powerful practice of art in Iraqi Kurdistan as it balances practices
and nationalities, values and identities to create an aesthetic that is uniquely Kurdish in its expression.
This examination of contemporary Kurdish art begins by considering the challenges to writing about
the visual arts in Kurdistan and discusses some of the indigenous projects that have worked to create
an arts infrastructure to preserve and promote the arts in the city of Sulaimani. While reecting on
Kurdish legacies within Iraq, this essay further interrogates the contemporary products of a combined
heritage and questions what pieces of this historical leg acy will be brought forward into the future of
Kurdistan.
Keywords: Kurdish art, Kurdish history, marginalized peoples, culture, Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan,
intersectionality, conict
One of the major cities in the region, Sulaimani has nurtured the writers, actors, poets,
painters and musicians of Kurdistan since the city’s founding in 1784.1 Today, “Suli,” one of
UNESCO’s “Creative Cities,”2 has a vibrant cultural scene with an active media, numerous
book shops, multiple museums, universities and arts institutes. The University of Sulaimani, in
particular, boasts an impressive College of Fine Arts that includes the Department of Music and
the Department of Plastic Arts. The College of Fine Arts has grown to include PhD studies in
Painting, Sculpture and Ceramics, and in 2016, hosted the rst Sulaimani International Film
Festival which opened in conjunction with the opening of the Department of Film. With few
exceptions, most weeks in Sulaimani you can attend the opening of an art show, take part in
any number of live music shows, enjoy a performance of live poetry, visit the Mozehanai Hunari
Howchah (Museum of Modern Art), the “Old” Tobacco Factory or the Sulaimani Archeological
Museum. If that’s not enough, you can always nd local painters, singers, writers and actors
enjoying hot tea and spirited conversations in the tea houses or in tightly intertwined knots
outside the shops of the bazaar. To say the least, there is always something happening in Paitakhti
Roshibri (the capital of the arts).
My own research about Kurdish art is deeply grounded in this unique city. It was during
my rst visits to Sulaimani that local friends rst introduced me to some of the most well-known
artists in Kurdistan. Talking with these esteemed artists, I was instantly hooked and became
consumed with an urgent desire to learn about all aspects of Kurdish artistic expression, to
include the visual arts, music, theatre and literature. In the early stages of eldwork, I focused my
research broadly on the greater arts scene in the city of Sulaimani to include musicians, writers,
painters and actors – waiting to see what the artists, regardless of genre, would present and what
interesting patterns or themes might emerge from within the data itself. Conducting numerous
1 “Sulaymaniya,” http://bot.gov.krd/sulaimaniya-province/sulaimaniya.
2 Ibid.
104 Volume Two, Number Two
unstructured and semi-structured interviews in addition to participant observations, research
conducted in this manner allowed me to focus on gathering more foundation information about
the artistic community. I often refer to data collection during the early phase of my research as
“foundation” research. This type of data collection included demographic information about
the artists; general understanding and knowledge of the iconology presented within the visual
arts and a rough historical timeline of the visual arts in Iraqi Kurdistan. Imagine for a moment
that instead of working with Kurdish artists, I was working with French artists. Before going in
to the eld, I would have had substantial literature about the history of French art, signicant
artists, important movements and more available to me in the literature. This is not the case
with Kurdish art in Iraq. In the absence
of literature about the topics previously
listed, it was critical for me to rst build
the resources I would need to support
the research to come.
In subsequent visits, I sought to gain
greater access to Kurdish visual artists by
engaging in numerous rapport-building
activities that allowed for the building
of a large chain-referral system of leads
and information. Visits over meals and
copious amounts of strong Kurdish tea,
conversations with local friends with
connections to the art scene, as well as
the artists themselves yielded a number
of benets. All of these activities
allowed me to build greater rapport
with my consultants and to gain a better
understanding of the depth and breadth
of popular art forms in Kurdistan.
In addition, this time allowed me to
also begin to understand some of the
important issues pervading society that
are also presenting themselves in the art
work. Ultimately, I chose to work with
the visual artists, those working in what
might also be termed the Fine Arts or the
Plastic Arts. In particular I narrowed my
focus to those visual artists who were
formally trained, or what one might
consider to be the “Academy.” This
was important and served to establish a
point of origin and foundation for my
work to progress from by grounding it in
Image 1: “Never Too Late” by Meriwan Abdullah. Photo credit
Autumn Cockrell-Abdullah.
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